You may have read on the internet that Andrew Sullivan is the 46th most powerful person in Washington, but as best I can tell you need to get your hands on a copy of the print GQ to find the real news of the list — Ross and I are “up and coming” powerful just like the mayor and Susan Rice.

You might be tempted to look at this list and nitpick. Does it really make sense to say that John Podesta is more powerful than Ben Bernanke? Suppose Podesta wanted to cause a global financial meltdown, or plunge the country into recession . . . what he could do about it? Nothing. But then you realize, no, this list must be one hundred percent accurate since it correctly identifies me as one of the centrally important figures of our time.

David Bradley, owner and Supreme Leader of the Atlantic Media Company is also on the list, but since he doesn’t have a blog it’s difficult for him to brag about it in a somewhat ironic and self-effacing manner. Point being: the Atlantic Media Company and its associated blogs are very, very, very powerful or, in some cases, up and coming as powerful. Be afraid.

Kevin Drum tries to make himself feel good about not owning an iPhone: “To summarize: the iPhone is expensive and fails miserably at its primary function of making telephone calls, but other than that it’s really great. Sign me up!”

Seriously, though, it’s true. At the same time, there strikes me as something quaint about this notion that a cell phone’s primary function is “making telephone callls.” Personally, I don’t like talking on the phone very much. My old Razr’s primary function was sending and receiving SMS messages. My new iPhone’s primary function is probably as an MP3 player, with SMSing as the key secondary function. Beyond that, I use the Web browser and the Google Maps function a lot. The phone’s actual “talking on the phone” functionality is unimpressive, but I don’t really mind that. Indeed, I mind it a lot less than I mind the fact that it doesn’t allow you to SMS to multiple people simultaneously, a flaw I fervently hope and pray will be corrected by some future software update.

At any rate, I realize that there’s probably a lot of variation about this. Most people aren’t nearly as phone-averse as I am. Meanwhile, thanks to the combination of the Google Calendar and Twitter, I count on a steady stream of text messages to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life, but most people aren’t living their lives like that.

Maybe Michael O’Hanlon’s continued prominence in the media is more useful than I’d realized. Here’s Michael Crowley:

But this evening I heard an NPR program (audio here) on which O’Hanlon was a guest, and I was struck by how self-defeatingly thin his argument for a continued occupation was. O’Hanlon readily conceded that he can’t construct a “convincing theory” for how political reconciliation might be achieved–and moreover that his argument for patience amounts to “a gut level… theory of hope” that somehow things will get better. I’m very torn but persuadable that sticking around might be better than various gruesome alternatives. But less so if advocates for that position–particularly nonideological ones like O’Hanlon–concede that their argument amounts to wishing upon a star.

Perhaps having more anti-war voices in the press would convince nobody — after all, they’re not “nonideological” like O’Hanlon — and what we need are more lame pro-war arguments in hopes that the overwhelming lameness will bring people around.