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.”
Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, whose relationship with Mr. Kaus goes back to their Harvard Crimson days, describes the Kaus philosophy thusly: “Mickey sees himself as a liberal whose mission in life is to correct the flaws of liberalism.”…
FOR a solitary blogger, Mickey Kaus is astonishingly social and well connected: It’s difficult to find a writer or politico in Los Angeles who hasn’t knocked elbows (or opinions) with Mr. Kaus at a party, or at the monthly mixers he hosts at Yamashiro restaurant and a supper club jokingly called Morons. With his growling voice, unruly hair and expansive brow, he is as dominating a physical presence as an intellectual one. Perpetually single at 58 — “I see myself as a bachelor who will get himself together very soon, in the same way Internet companies will be profitable next year” — he’s also dated a fair number of the eligible literati of Los Angeles, including Arianna Huffington in 2005.
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