On Morning Joe this morning Newsweek columnist David Frum called Republican leaders “cowards” and said that rural rightwing brainiacs have been been lied to by a “conservative entertainment complex” — i.e., Fox News. A conservative and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Frum said that the GOP had been “overrun by fear-mongers.” (The key passage starts at 5:38.)

“The problem with Republican leaders is that they’re cowards,” Frum said, adding that the party’s base of donors “went apocalyptic” in the last four years. “Republicans have been fleeced and exploited and lied to by a conservative entertainment complex,” he said. Morning Joe‘s Joe Scarborough asked Frumn to “name names,” to whcih Frum replied that there are “too many.”

Frum said he’d spoken with Tea Party morons and found that a majority was convinced that taxes had increased under Obama and that the federal government had spent more than $1 trillion on welfare each year. Both claims are bullshit. “The followers, the donors and the activists are so mistaken about the nature of the problems the country faces,” Frum said.

Key quote: “The people who put the cement shoes on Romney’s feet are now blaming him for sinking.”