Frum auditions for Kristol's NYTimes column

David Frum recently wrote "What's good for Rush Limbaugh is bad for Republicans" for the national post where he discusses Republican popularity and what they must do to improve it. You can get the gist of his argument from this quote:

Rush and Hannity and O’Reilly and Ann Coulter and the others have their place and their role. [...] The more the party allows them to become our public face, the more embattled and endangered the party becomes.

So we have an ex establishment Republican (he used to be a speech writer for Bush Sr.) writing an article suggesting his party move towards moderation and reject non-moderate influences. All this just after Bill Kristol leaves the nytimes. Can this be read as Frum throwing his hat in the ring to be Kristol's replacement? The article certainly sounds like if comes from sort of conservative the nytimes can be comfortable with. Even the sort of conservative who gets invited to have dinner with the president.