dailykos; in-fighting

Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga - Wkp: (born 11 September 1971), often known by his username and former military moniker "Kos" (kōs), is the founder and main author of Daily Kos, a weblog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party politics.
Moulitsas was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Salvadoran mother and Greek father, and grew up in El Salvador. (Following the Spanish language custom for surnames, his last name is "Moulitsas", not "Zúniga".)
He served in the U.S. Army from 1989 through 1992; while stationed in Germany, and after missing deployment to the Gulf War "by a hair",[1] he changed his political affiliation from the Republican to the Democratic Party. He has described the American military as "perhaps the ideal society – we worked hard but the Army took care of us in return."
Moulitsas founded Daily Kos in May 2002, and the site quickly rose to prominence. Kerry, Jimmy Carter, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and many other Democratic senators, congressmen, governors and candidates have posted on the site. The site now has more than 180,000 registered members.


looking at kos, wh I've heard of but scarcely read (like all the political blogs) before now, bcs of this on asllvn:
The Socialization Of The Pundit Class - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Kos is onto something. I'm horribly anti-social with my fellow pundits. And I'm lucky enough to have been able to write this blog for eight years without having to belong to any party or clique. I realize now how unusual this is. But it helps explain why it was a lot easier for me to call these Republicans out as total poseurs long before most of my fellow conservative hacks.

= kos: Getting invited to all the cool shows and parties
Douhat:'I've always found the class-war element in inter-pundit sniping a little bizarre: Whether it's the netroots types hating on center-left columnists, or paleocons whining about how neocons get invited to all the cool parties, or Hanson's peculiar vision of David Brooks and Barack Obama chatting about Proust on the Acela (or something like that)...'
Problem is, it's pretty much true. NYC and DC sports a cocktail party circuit, and remaining in its good graces requires toeing the line of David Broder and Joe Klein. .. It's clear that the social aspects of these scenes do reinforce certain ideological tenets, depending on the scene. You even see that in the blogosphere, as bloggers "socialize" with each other via links and whatnot. And if one of our set's members goes off the reservation, like John Cole did last year? Mass delinking.
Today, the establishment conventional wisdom is that Palin is a cancer on the Republican Party, and that CW is getting circulated at those cocktail parties, reinforced time and time again. And if those social-climbing pundits and establishment types want to keep their social graces, they must play along. int. so the toeing of the line here is the people ~ like Brooks ~ denouncing Palin. not the ~loyalty~ of the folks eg at The Corner, National Rvw, who continue to enthuse about her and who have been playing up the Ayers attack. Thus you see a rift forming on the Right -- between the establishment types and dogmatic conservatives. In this case it's the establishment that is right, not the ideologues, but that's beside the point.
NRO's Mark Levin bemoans here: Let's be honest, Frum was invited on CBS because the producer knew he has expressed repeatedly his dislike of Palin. He represents a tiny fraction of conservatives but makes for good liberal TV. K-Lo responds: No question about it, Mark. I never got more media requests than the day I criticized the campaign for holding Palin too tight, overcoaching her, and not setting her free.
The media loves internal fights like nothing else. yeah why is that? I mean, I find it int. good human drama? It has nothing to do with "liberal TV", as Levin fantasizes. Like K-Lo says, nothing will generate more media requests than one of my pieces blasting Democrats. Those requests are certainly ignored, since there's a place for our dirty laundry, and it ain't on some bullshit cable news show. But for years it's our side that has had to suffer Harold Ford, Joe Lieberman, Lanny Davis, and the whole lot of "Democratic strategists" who do little but criticize and undermine our own party. Conservatives haven't had to deal with that annoying media tic because 1) conservatives had little to complain about, they had the trifecta, and 2) conservatives have always been able to keep their people in line better than us. That's all changing. And while I sympathize, all I can say is "welcome to our world". View Comments | 198 comments

Bitter, Party Of Rove - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Wolcott: ...does anyone truly believe that the Rovians around McCain wouldn't be wielding a mace against Wright if they thought it would work? Even if it offended McCain's proud sensibilities, we know Sarah Palin wouldn't have any hesitation spouting whatever shit they set before her. The meta ruckus over Rev Wright ruckus is the preliminary round of the blame game Republicans are ready to play to rationalize what they fear will be a wipeout this November. It's already a treat watching Mark Steyn in a mock-populist snit over Christopher Buckley's endorsement of Obama, and Mark Levin rattling his parrot cage over the media attention given David Frum's thumbs-down of Sarah Palin. It can only get better (i.e., more bitter) from here.

All The King's Men - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Larison has some good insight into GOP fidelity: The loyalist is bound by devotion, and the conformist by fear, usually fear of an enemy or opponent. We see the former when people rally to a monarch or leader they genuinely admire, and we see the latter in support for a dictator as the lesser of two evils.