Mr. Feldstein your concerns might best be answered by reading ‘The Neoconservative Revolution,Jewish Intellectuals and the Making of Public Policy’ by Murray Friedman published by Cambridge University Press, 2006.
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It is tempting to agree with jonnyfarout in his assessment of the political fate of David Frum, as richly deserved: the ethical resonance of that fate is in this post both beautifully and cogently argued.  In his indispensible book ‘Conservatism, Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair’ Ted Honderich accesses Political Conservatism as being mired in a deep seated authoritarianism that is endemic to its very existence, as idea and practice; and he argues very convincingly on this irrefutable point. Given that very real theory and practice of authoritarianism in Conservatism, we can hardly be surprised by AEI’s action against one of its own, even one of Conservatism’s most dedicated, outspoken operatives. One need only recall the ‘Eleventh Commandment’ in the past of The Republican Party as being thought of as essential to a winning strategy. Mr. Frum violated that unarticulated, but essential, rule of fealty in a party addicted to its romance with the jackboot. What is needed is a Republican Party that is politically viable, with a left wing, a right wing and a center: a return to the pre-Goldwater Party,  that makes sense in the national context, of a rational electable party of opposition, with a set of viable alternative policies, not the No-Nothings who are presently in charge. The real question is where are the Republican Moderates? If any still exist. They must at some point declare themselves, as such, and begin an attempt to rebuild the party.

I for one am happy to see Frum bite a bitter pill here. His treatment and remarks to George Galloway about the Iraq War on British pundit TV, along with his small brained and lick spittle buddy, Norm Coleman, at a congressional hearing, with their distortions and lies and NeoCon-isms that have so harmed the world and the USA, not to mention all the dead… so now his gang of history distorting think tankers are tired of his neuroses, too. Too bad; this is not good enough. A sniveling revisionist from the Bush Gang feels a bit of a pang? That a faky-do TV conservative has him speechless in his chair… good good…he deserves much worse, his pariah-hood is well deserved. He used the word intellectual like it is his special skill… he is a disgrace. The only problem is that there is more of his ilk, and some are much worse; he could work for the Vatican after this, they would like him, he would fit in there, their own private Jewish intellectual. Maybe Israel has a spot for him in their panoply of revisionist history and hatred for Palestinians.