Ramesh – Not only is Novak’s review repugnant, it’s based on an absurdity. Novak declares: “While Frum calls himself ‘a not especially observant Jew,’ he repeatedly refers to his Jewishness. It is hard to recall any previous presidential aide so engrossed with his own ethnic roots.”

Well, he says this in Pat Buchanan’s magazine. Pat Buchanan was a “previous presidential aide.” And, I happen to have his book, “Right from the Beginning” right here. It drips with nostalgia about his Irish Catholic upbringing. Page after page has statements like “The impact of the Catholic Church upon my parents’ outlook on life, and upon our family, is almost impossible to overestimate.” I literally found that at random. There are whole chapters dedicated to his “Catholicness,” with titles like “Blessed Sacrament” and “The Pope’s Marines.” He glides seamlessly between his own faith and ethnicity and his politics as if they are one and the same. Novak may think Frum is “engrossed” with his Jewishness — though it seems to me that Novak is the one who is engrossed by it. But if Frum is engrossed, Buchanan is obsessed to the point of dementia. Unless, that is, obsession with ones Christian faith and Irish upbrining doesn’t count.