Semi-Daily Journal

"I don't understand Mickey Kaus either."

You and every other rational, intelligent person.

The reason so many rational people are thinking of voting for an Austrian body-builder for governor is that they go through a process of elmination. The other choices are all so unappetizing.

I predict that Grey Davis will beat the recall, just barely. If he doesn't it's Bustamante. I don't see Arnold going over 25%.

Unless a Moonie or Vegan gets elected due to ballot errors.

I first heard of Mickey Kaus via pointers on this site to the outstanding work he did on the situation in Florida during the 2000 election. I'm not being sarcastic; it was really excellent.
But I stopped reading him soon after. It's like he was taken over by external influences during that period. If so, I wish they would come back.

Perhaps Kaus is operating under the same assumption as Sonny Bono. Who told Chris Matthews on Hardball just before he was killed, that he thought it would be good for there to be more people like him in congress. Because with his background of hustling to make a living he knew that there were people who would game any system.

Say like prison guards' and teachers' unions?

I'll tell you who *I* don't understand: Maria Shriver. Surely she could have had her pick of men; what made her go for such an unsavory character?

The semi-criminal startup entrepreneur is a Republican demographic. Darrell Issa is another, and I am personally acquainted with several of them. The self-made man struggling against the repressive forces of Government Regulators (who arbitrarily forbid you to damage other peoples' houses, in this case) -- that's the Republican version of the Robin Hood primitive bandit type of the left.

We had a conservative Republican Congressman here in Oregon (Wes Cooley) who was implicated in ten different instances of lies and fraud by the time he resigned (about half of them illegal, e.g. defrauding the VA)-- and when he resigned he still had, as I remember, 15-20% support. He probably could have been reelected, except the state and national party stepped in because he gave them a black eye.

I think that this type gets more sympathy than it deserves because many voters would do that kind of stuff if they only dared, or do do similiar things on a smaller scale. Sort of a criminal voting demographic. People who disapprove are self-righteous and shrill.

I think Kaus is approaching politics from the entertainment angle nowdays; god knows his policy recommendations don't make sense like they did in the days of The End of Equality.

The semi-criminal startup entrepreneur is a Republican demographic. Darrell Issa is another, and I am personally acquainted with several of them. The self-made man struggling against the repressive forces of Government Regulators (who arbitrarily forbid you to damage other peoples' houses, in this case) -- that's the Republican version of the Robin Hood primitive bandit type of the left.

We had a conservative Republican Congressman here in Oregon (Wes Cooley) who was implicated in ten different instances of lies and fraud by the time he resigned (about half of them illegal, e.g. defrauding the VA)-- and when he resigned he still had, as I remember, 15-20% support. He probably could have been reelected, except the state and national party stepped in because he gave them a black eye.

I think that this type gets more sympathy than it deserves because many voters would do that kind of stuff if they only dared, or do do similiar things on a smaller scale. Sort of a criminal voting demographic. People who disapprove are self-righteous and shrill.

Kaus is both useless and uninteresting.

Quite a deadly combination.