David Frum's DiaryTuesday, September 11, 2007
http://www.nationalreview.com/
This week of national remembrance also marks the release of the new book by Laura Ingraham, Power to the People. John Miller interviews her about the book a bit here. I'd like to talk more personally about what Laura's voice on the radio has come to mean to many of us.
I've known Laura for a long time: first as a crusading young journalist at Dartmouth, then as a rising young law clerk, next as a television host, and now as one of America's leading stars of talk radio. She has always been brilliant and brave, but over the past three years — uncoincidentally coinciding with her triumphant struggle against cancer — she has gained a new eloquence.
Laura was among the very first to come out in opposition to the Harriet Miers nomination — not because she is undeliberate, but because she is one of the best-informed journalists in America on everything to do with the legal system and the courts. It's not just that she knows a lot of law (although she does). She also does the work to stay plugged into the discussions among lawyers and legal scholars.
Laura's show is truly very funny, but it is also very sophisticated and smart. For all that we are supposed to denigrate the evils of life inside the Beltway, there's no substitute for being connected and knowledgeable.
Best of all, Laura's radio persona remains remarkably untainted by ego. Radio is no medium for the bashful, of course, but when I listen to Laura, I hear the voice of someone who has much to share — but also never pretends to know all the answers.
We fans have seen Laura through some very difficult personal times these past months. She has poured much of the emotion of those days into this new and very personal book. We her listeners have come to cherish her more as we feared we might lose her — and now we have her back securely among the living again, feistier than ever, with more battles to wage and much more than ever to say.
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