Announcement: Notes on Social Security to become part of NewMajority.com

Over the next week or so this blog will transition to become part of a new group blog – NewMajority.com – founded by my AEI colleague David Frum. David is a thoughtful guy and has gotten a very interesting group together to participate. There will be opinion-based blogging as well as new reporting, so NewMajority should prove a good stopping point for all kinds of readers.

While I'll blog on some broader topics, I'll continue to focus on Social Security, pensions, entitlements, social insurance and the rest. In particular, I'll talk about why the vision of social insurance programs can be going forward, and how to maintain the protections Americans desire consistent with the size of government they've traditionally preferred. In one sense, this may seem rather narrow – after all, there a many more issues than entitlements for policymakers to deal with. On the other hand, if we don't get on top of entitlement spending, the federal government will become – in Paul Krugman's phrase – a pension plan with an army. Until we can't even afford the army.

Here's a press release with more details on the site and the great cast of characters who will be involved.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The inaugural event for Republicans on Jan. 20 will not be the swearing-in of President Barack Obama; it will be the launch of NEWMAJORITY.COM (http://www.newmajority.com), a new voice for conservatives determined to renew and reform the Grand Old Party.

Led by David Frum, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and popular blogger for National Review Online, NewMajority.com will champion a responsive, responsible, inclusive, and environmentally-conscious conservatism."

If the public rejects your party's message," Frum says, "it doesn't do much good to repeat that same message -- only louder."

Frum is seeking a diverse, lively, and informed group of contributors who will shape a new conservatism to appeal to the crucial constituencies lost in recent years: the young, the college-educated, women, and minorities.

On Jan. 20, 2009, NewMajority.com will celebrate its inauguration with contributions from Michael Powell, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; Ken Kurson, Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign chief operating officer; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, domestic policy chief for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign; Margaret Hoover of FOX News; Dr. Amanda Foreman, author of the best-selling biography, "Georgiana" (upon which the recent movie, "The Duchess," was based); John Gardner, former White House deputy staff secretary and general counsel to the Agency for International Development; Andrew Biggs, deputy administrator of the Social Security Administration; and Henry Olsen, vice president of the American Enterprise Institute. Frum himself will live-blog Barack Obama's inaugural address.

The site will also offer a candid and in-depth interview with former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani conducted by a man who knows the mayor intimately -- former chief Giuliani speechwriter and NewMajority.com contributor John Avlon.

NewMajority.com will feature investigative reporting by Moira Bagley, a Capitol Hill insider on a journalistic mission to hold the new Congress and administration accountable.

Frum says: "Mrs. Thatcher used to insist that the facts of life are conservative -- and our conservative journalism will be fact-based."

Also appearing will be a growing roster of famous names -- and fresh young voices.

Editor Frum is the author of six books, including most recently "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again" (Doubleday, 2007). In 2005, he founded Americans for Better Justice, the group that led the opposition to the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Frum is a member of the board of directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition and served as senior foreign policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani in 2007-2008.

"I want to feature new voices on the site: young writers and writers from backgrounds not usually heard in the blogosphere," Frum says. "And we will try to build a new conservative online community by opening our site to civil and pertinent reader comments. It is often our readers who have the most interesting and informative things to say."

Frum has recruited contributors from around the country. Some of those voices include Sarah Gannaway, wife of an Army officer wounded in Iraq, who will explain why Republicans have lost the support of many military families; "Jean Granville," the pen name of a senior French civil servant who will analyze why French TV is again broadcasting faked anti-Israel video footage; a young Indian in London, Kapil Kommedi, will blog on the emerging US-India relationship; rising young journalist Jamie Kirchick will argue why it's time for Republicans to make their peace with gay rights; an oil industry executive who will explain his industry under the pen name "Gusher;" and contributors who will deliver from the spot insight into the politics of Chicago, California, Texas -- and Afghanistan.

Under David Frum's editorship, NewMajority.com will rapidly become the central forum in the gathering debate over the future of the Republican Party -- and an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand American politics.

Media Contacts: Sabrina Propper, R Propper International Public Relations spropper@rpipr.com Mobile: 818.515.5798 John Russel, RUSSEL Public Relations jrussel@russelprla.com Mobile: 818.516.8572

NewMajority.com goes live on January 20. I hope you all will be joining me there.