I’m going to wait until emotions cool and both David Frum and Bruce Bartlett are given time to clarify and — I hope — correct the storyline they’ve helped fuel about AEI before commenting further. I have been here in my new role less than a month and I don’t think I should be the one taking point defending AEI. But from the moment I read Bartlett’s allegation I thought it was untrue, unfair and preposterous. And I agree with Charles insofar as David’s glib speculation — and that’s all it is, self-serving speculation — that he was “ousted” because of “donor pressure” is really unseemly. Anyway, if you want to read responses from AEI scholars themselves, you should visit the Enterprise Blog here and here and see this by Conor Friedersdorf.