Update: The show is now complete and available for download at the On Topic page!
Are you ready for a real debate on the issues with some of your favorite bloggers? Well, today's one of your best chances in while!
Today at 2pmPST/5pmEST on our radio show On Topic, your own clammyc and I will be debating blogger celebrity Mickey Kaus of the well-known Kausfiles, who writes at Slate, the world's biggest online newsmagazine. A self-described centrist neoliberal and supporter of the surge, Mickey has been blogging on political issues since long before DailyKos or even MyDD ever arrived on the scene: I've been reading him (and occasionally yelling at my computer screen!) since before I was in college--so it's a real honor to be debating him today. We'll be talking about the so-called "surge" in Iraq, and the benefits and drawbacks of being a centrist or a moderate (which, as many here have seen, I define as totally separate things).
Never heard of Mickey Kaus? If not, you should have! Here's a quick, fairly accurate primer from Wikipedia:
Mickey Kaus (born 1951) is an American journalist and author best known for writing Kausfiles, a "mostly political" blog featured on Slate.com. Kaus is the author of The End of Equality and had previously worked as a journalist for Newsweek, The New Republic and Washington Monthly. Kaus attended Harvard Law School but has never practiced law...
Kaus first wrote Slate's "Chatterbox" column in 1997 but started Kausfiles in 1999 as a private blog. In 2002, he returned to Slate at the invitation of editor Michael Kinsley. During 2003, the daily readership of Kausfiles varied between 15,000 and 30,000.
Stylistically the blog is most notable for its interior monologues including the ruse of a non-existent editor. Media critic James Wolcott, in his book Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants, uses Kaus as the archetypal example of a type of pundit he labels "counterintuitives". This type of pundit goes out of his way to stake out positions which run counter to conventional wisdom. Kaus has identified himself as neoliberal. Nevertheless, liberals like Paul Krugman and J. Bradford DeLong believe that Kaus is no longer a neoliberal but rather a neoconservative, which they indicate by calling him a Rhinoceros, from Eugene Ionesco's play of that name.[1]
During the 2003 California recall, Kausfiles uncovered an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger by Oui magazine in which he boasted of participating in group sex. This post sparked a series of claims of sexual misconduct during Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding and acting career. Kaus later posted about a 1981 Today Show appearance where Schwarzenegger claimed that he deliberately damaged chimneys in order to boost demand for his bricklaying business, which was another scoop.
During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the blog displayed a strong and consistent distaste for John Kerry, despite the fact that Kaus endorsed Kerry and contributed to his campaign. Kausfiles has also consistently criticized the Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica radio station KCRW, and CNN President Jonathan Klein. In more recent times, Kaus has criticized prominent Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. On immigration policy, Kaus is consistently a restrictionist who does not favor amnesty for illegal immigrants in the United States. He is also skeptical of affirmative action, labor unions (particularly automotive workers' unions and teachers' unions), and gerrymandering of congressional districts. In the 2006 U.S. Midterm Elections Kaus wrote that he hoped the Democrats would fail to take over the U.S. House of Representatives but take the Senate. He called the election "perverse" because he saw a Democratic victory as not impeding Bush's Iraq policy but helping his immigration policy. Nevertheless, Kaus still voted for Democrat Jane Harman.[1]
The blog also comments on the automotive industry and Kaus irregularly files automotive-centric "Gearbox" columns on Slate.
Of course, Mickey's posts and ideas are signficantly more complex than this bio gives him credit for--sometimes I have no idea where he'll wind up on any given issue, so Kausfiles is always an interesting read. All of which means that we should be in for a great debate this afternoon!
So come on over and stream the show to hear it live--or download it later from our blog Political Nexus!