For Mickey Kaus, Winning Isn’t the Point (Kaus is running against Barbara Boxer)

[alp227]

“THIS is the throbbing heart of the Kaus for Senate campaign,” says Mickey Kaus, throwing open the door to his two-bedroom apartment in the Venice neighborhood here. Inside, there are no campaign posters to be seen, no army of clean-scrubbed interns, no banks of phones or red-white-and-blue bunting or stacks of voter registration forms. Instead, there’s just Ikea furniture buried under a flurry of political tomes, magazines, printouts, cellphone manuals, and two-year-old Christmas card photos starring his friends’ children. A red laptop balances on a stool. A small TV sits on a table. In the kitchen, spilled coffee grounds share counter space with a spread of vitamins and nonalcoholic beer.

No, this is not your typical Senate campaign command center; but then again, Mr. Kaus is not your typical Senate hopeful. His lair speaks more to his career of the last 10 years — prolific blogger and professional curmudgeon — than the one he’s currently aspiring to. As the one-man show behind Kausfiles on Slate, Mr. Kaus was one of the first political bloggers, after a print career that included stops at publications like Newsweek and Harper’s.

More than a decade on, he’s legendary for being a gadfly, an irritant and a provocateur, a so-called “neoliberal” who is loathed by many Democrats (see: Ezra Klein) and befriended by an equal number of conservatives (see: Ann Coulter). His blog drew up to 40,000 daily readers.

“Drew” being the operative word. In March, Mr. Kaus unexpectedly stepped out from behind his laptop, quit his job at Slate, and announced that he was running for Senate in the California Democratic primary on June 8 against the incumbent, Barbara Boxer. His slogan: “Common Sense Democrat.” The announcement was greeted with equal parts amusement, enthusiasm and scorn. (In Vanity Fair, James Wolcott suggested Mr. Kaus “run for mayor of Margaritaville” instead.)

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Here are Mickey Kaus’ issues, in a nutshell: labor unions (which he blames for the destruction of the California educational system, the auto industry and assorted government institutions) and illegal immigration (which he thinks can’t be solved with a general amnesty). He has opinions on everything from health care to marijuana legalization, but these tend to hew closer to the Democratic party platform, while the former issues are where he differs from what he calls the “lock-step Democrats.”

“We need a government that works, an economy that’s hot, and people have to make enough money to live a life of dignity,” he argues. “That’s what the unions and the Latino lobby are getting in the way of.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/fashion/06kaus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[Ken Burch]

1. "The Latino lobby"?

And you say this guy plans on getting elected in CALIFORNIA?

Well, you'd expect that kind of thing from Mr. "End Of Equality" himself.