After David Mamet trumpeted his switch to Republican Party politics in 2008, there were some who claimed that he'd been a conservative all along. Shelby Steele, an author of right-wing books on race and a fellow at the Hoover Institution who talked with the playwright frequently during his "conversion," said he detected early conservative leanings in Mamet's previous works. “I think he has the same values today that he did before,” Steele told a reporter. “He’s said to me he thinks he might have always been conservative without knowing it. All that happened was, he finally found a politics that suited his values.”

Steele doesn't appear to have looked [...]

I can sort of understand why so many people might find it amusing or disturbing that David Mamet will write and direct and new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. But let's be serious: The guy is pretty much a born-again Jew. Do you really think he's going to turn in a screenplay full of "fuckin' Nazis" and "Otto, you cocksucker"s? Of course not. I'm sure he's going to approach the assignment with sensitivity, respect, and a dramatist's instincts for what makes a story vital and true. So remain calm. I mean, it's not like they tapped Quentin Tarantino to direct a movie set during the Holocaust, right? [...]

"The mystery of political conversion narratives is why claiming that you used to believe the wrong thing, because you were stupid, moves you to the front of the line to talk about the new, correct thing that you believe, now that you are smart."

David Mamet "practices jujitsu, sometimes sparring with his rabbi at picnics." Just thought I'd share that.