Former Bush speechwriter turned neo-conservative, chickenhawk, wingnut columnist David Frum is overqualified for this humble weekly honor. He’s a very strong candidate for the malakatude hall of fame, which should have an entire wing devoted to the Bush/Cheney gang. David Frum routinely writes, says, and tweets stupid and untrue things so there’s a wealth of material to choose from. His recent gratuitous and mendacious comments about Serena Williams take the cake and that is why David Frum is malaka of the week.
It started on the Tweeter Tube. The tweets were deleted but Frummy remained unapologetic in the Beavis-Duce administration style:
Serena Williams’ victory at Wimbledon, her fourth Grand Slam in a row, was a singular athletic achievement. Williams’ victory was her twenty-first Grand Slam victory overall and strengthened her claim as the greatest female tennis players of all time — and one of the greatest athletes ever in any sport. It was celebrated by millions around the world.
David Frum had a different reaction.
Frum, a former adviser to George W. Bush who is now the Senior Editor of The Atlantic, strongly suggested that Williams was on steroids based on her physical appearance:
[Blogger’s note: To see screenshots of the expletive deleted tweets, click the link above.]
Frum expanded on his suspicions in a series of tweets he later deleted, claiming they were intended to be “a private Twitter conversation with a friend.” In his deleted tweets, Frum compared Serena to admitted dopers in other sports like Mark McGwire and Lance Armstrong.
Yo, Frummy. Twitter is a public forum. Unless you’re direct messaging, ain’t nothing private on the Tweeter Tube. You just got caught with your wingnut wingtip in your mouth.
Daniel Koffler, a medical student and competitive power lifter who has worked as a Certified Strength And Conditioning Specialist, says there’s no reason to suspect Williams based on her physical appearance. “Women can, and very frequently do, achieve levels of muscular size and strength not just equal to but greater than Serena Williams’ without using steroids,” Koffler told ThinkProgress.
Koffler said it impossible to tell with certainty whether someone has used steriods based on their physical appearance. But, according Koffler’s, Williams’ physique creates “no rational basis for heightened suspicion.”
In an email to ThinkProgress, Frum declined to elaborate on why he suggested that Serena’s accomplishments were tainted with steroid use.
Williams is one of the most frequently drug tested players in men’s or women’s tennis. In 2014 alone, she was tested four to six times during competition and more than seven times outside of competition. (Tests outside of competition are considered the most important to catching illegal doping.) Williams has never been implicated in the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs.
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UPDATE
Frum appeared on Roland Martin’s show on TV One on Monday morning to defend his tweets. Frum largely attempted to shift the topic to a general discussion of steroid use in tennis. He did, however, assert there was reason to suspect Serena Williams in particular. Frum suggested that during a two year period from 2010 to 2011, Serena Williams was not drug tested at all. During that time period, Williams was tested for drugs at least eight times, according to an official International Tennis Federation report. In an email, Frum said he was referencing “out of competition” testing. That claim is true, although professional tennis conducted only a handful of “out of competition” blood tests during those years. Over the last 3 years, Serena has been subjected to at least 12 “out of competition” blood tests.
There you have it in a wingnut shell: Frum doesn’t know anything and made shit up to support his insupportable allegations. Sounds depressingly like his defense of the Iraq War and the WMDs that were never found despite the grand claims of the Bushies.
I’m not a big tennis fan but Serena Williams is a great athlete and a great champion. Her accomplishments have been minimized because of her gender and race. Being a former GOP hack, Frum knows how to use code words instead of being blatantly racist and sexist but we know what he’s driving at.
The other element of Frum’s malakatude is a guy thing: he goes on about “body image issues” as a code for juicing. There are far too many men who judge all women on the basis of whether they find them attractive. It doesn’t matter if Malaka Frum and his micro-penis thinks Serena is hot or not. He may think so but it doesn’t mean shit to a tree. I’m sure he thinks Maria Sharapova is hot but she lost to Serena in the Wimbledon semi-finals for the 17th consecutive time. Oops.
I realize that in the context of Frum’s long and errant career as a GOP hack and minor league pundit, this attack on Serena Williams doesn’t amount to much. It’s a misdemeanor in a lifetime of felonious lies and distortions. It does, however, bug the living shit out of me. Anytime someone doesn’t like an athlete, they accuse them of juicing as a way of minimizing their achievements. Serena Williams is a great champion. David Frum is a pissant, and that is why he’s malaka of the week.
Does Frum get a trophy or something for winning Malaka of the Week? Perhaps we can ask Serena Williams to present it to him. If he can wrest it from her grip.
What’s strange is that crazy, racist Frum didn’t even TRY to get informed before inserting his foot in his mouth again. Serena Williams had SURGERY and was HOSPITALIZED in 2010. So she wasn’t even playing tennis! Is Feum suggesting that steroid testers just roll up on her in her hospital bed? Why? And why didn’t Roland Martin have anyone on his show knowledgeable enough about Serena’s career and tennis to answer that racist jerk, Frum?! I’m so tired of black people just sitting there while nonsense gets spewed by racists!
For the record, this 68 year old white guy finds both Williams sisters attractive. And I take heart in in knowing that Serena could beat the ever-loving shit out of David Frum.
Serena rocks, one of the greatest champions in tennis history….period.
And “doesn’t mean shit to a tree”! Bonus points for obscure Jeff Airplane reference.
There’s no trophy, alas. It might be a hand with an extended middle finger if it existed. And thanks, Robo, you’re making me feel, uh, slick.
Frum is adept at making shit up. Recall that he claims to be the originator of the “axis of evil” concept while he was working for the Bushies. He’s pretty much the archetypal conservative moron, if only because he thinks people will believe his drivel. In this case, he’s just following a generally conservative theme that black people aren’t capable of any effort worthy of note, so, Williams, as a consequence of her race, must have cheated.
Frum was, is, and always will be a mere factotum in the conservative panoply of useless little dickweeds. I suspect that Hitler said much the same thing about Jesse Owens in 1936, so I suspect Frum has found himself in, ahem, interesting company.
Thank goodness rational people have called Frum on his casual libel/slander of the magnificent Serena Williams. Frum’s ignorance defies all justification for it. Literally millions of people know that prolonged steroid use results in dramatic loss of breast tissue in women. But Serena Williams has the most naturally ample, womanly bosom on the women’s tour.
And Serena’s had that voluptuousness ever since she won her first major tournament, the US Open, waaay back when she was an innocent mere 17 year-old. Add that fact to the reality of rigorous testing and Serena’s and Venus’s belief in the human body as a temple, and knowledgeable, honest people would recognize that the Williams Sisters are the least likely people on tour to take that poison just for a “sports advantage.”
If Frum is looking for women pro tennis cheats, he needs to look at Sesil Karantantcheva who failed steroid tests Twice, and was banned from tennis for years because of it. The irony for rabid racists stupidly trying to point fingers at the Clean, Naturally hardworking Williams Sisters? Sesil Karantantcheva, steroid cheat, while Juiced to the Gills, “beat” a Clean, honest Williams sister whose official tour ranking Unfairly fell as a result!