A veritable Washington Monument of wankery

Wankery so stunning, so breathtaking, so awe-inducing stoopid it must be celebrated.

Mickey's point is fairly simple; the primary enemy of the Democratic Party remains on the left, and Ezra is a twerp for not being able to understand that. The attack on Ezra is only a minor manifestation of Mickey's larger approach to politics. This approach includes, of course, an effort to purge the Democratic Party of all evident Democrats. Ezra's suggestion that neoliberalism is both dead and that it failed is a challenge to just about everything Mickey stands for, both personally and politically. Now, my own position on this question is closer to that of Matt; neoliberalism had its place, but at this point in time the "Left", such that it is, has internalized the most important critiques and has rendered anti-leftists purges of the sort that Mickey is demanding rather pointless and quaint. For Ezra, a young, popular writer with hair to suggest that not only Mickey's political stance but, essentially, his entire career has been a waste of time must be particularly irritating. Mickey, along with so many young men of his generation, fought and died face down in the mud, in the jungles of the New Republic, trying to kill unions and other pro-Democratic interest groups in the 1990s. And now, does anyone appreciate the sacrifice? Does Mickey get a parade? Of course not; rather, some young kid like Ezra Klein comes along and spits in his face, and tells him it was all for nothing.

[...]

Kaus is a cartoon figure, which Robert Wright tries to point out in polite terms in their Bloggingheads ("you're kind of a neoliberal...icon"). He combines puerile insight with absolutely the worst writing of any blogger I've ever encountered. Without the Slate link, he'd be getting about 40 hits a day. I still find it valuable to launch the occasional attack against him, largely because he's not self-aware enough to render his arguments in less than transparent terms. I'm sure that other "neoliberals" find gays icky, hate unions, a get stiffys from Ann Coulter, but only Mickey fails to understand that these are things that reasonable people ought to be ashamed of.

Well said, Mr. Farley. Well said.

Long time readers of this precious blog know that Mickey Maus is particularly reviled here. Not merely because of the sheer inanity of his writing, the sneering attitude towards anyone with socio-political leanings to the left of Dick Cheney, his schoolyard and totally superfluous ad hominems against bloggers who are smarter than him, or his insistence that after these long years of Republican political control, it is still Democrats who should take the blame for all that is wrong in our government buildings, on our streets, in our schoolhouses, nay, in our internets. No. What really peeves me is the "[Ed.]" asides, a writing tic he should have grown out of a long time ago, if his ability to "grow" did not match that of his hairline's.

In unrelated news, Bill Clinton announced he was moving ... [Isn't there a Ron Burkle joke in here somewhere?--ed I think! But I'm actually scared of getting Slate sued--proof that press laws like this can have a big effect. Just run it past the lawyers--ed At 4 in the morning? It wasn't that funny a joke. Good thing the New York Times can't be intimidated. They'd never go soft on a guy like him.--ed Um ... OK, I missed that interview. But they owed it to Burkle after that "zipping around" line.-ed]

All that said, I'm not sure what's so bad about 40 hits a day.