Mickey Kaus

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Mickey Kaus.
Mickey Kaus.

Mickey Kaus (born July 6, 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. He has a brother, Stephen Kaus, who is a lawyer and occasional commentator on The Huffington Post. Kaus currently resides in Venice Beach, CA.

Contents

[edit] Kausfiles

Kaus first wrote Slate's "Chatterbox" column in 1997 but started Kausfiles in 1999 as a private blog. It was perhaps the second major political blog in the United States (after Bob Somerby's The Daily Howler). 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 endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, while criticizing other 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.

[edit] Radio

Kaus has also contributed to radio, making occasional contributions to the Slate/NPR show "Day to Day."

[edit] Bloggingheads.tv

On November 1, 2005, Kaus and journalist Robert Wright launched BloggingHeads.tv, a video weblog dialog or dia-vlog focusing on mostly-political current events. Kaus and Wright trade off from time to time with other bloggers and authors, discussing the headlines and latest developments and making predictions.

To exploit the visual side of the medium, Kaus sometimes uses visual aids such as an Al Gore mask and a stuffed moose. According to Kaus[2] "Deploying the moose" symbolizes Pinch Sulzberger's idea of "the unaddressed important issue" similar to the "elephant in the room."

In an episode recorded February 8, 2006, Kaus said[3] "half the Democrats are going to vote for McCain and I'm going to be one of them." Kaus linked[4] to his own statement in a February 10, 2008 blog post with the words, "I can't believe I said this."

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.wws.princeton.edu/pkrugman/rhino.html, http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/000422.html

[edit] External links