Yglesiasfiles

A couple of interesting points that emerge from Mickey Kaus’ chat with Deborah Solomon. First he has a cunning strategy to divide the Young DC Progressive Blogosphere by playing me off against Ezra Klein:

So are most Democratic bloggers.
Ezra Klein gets under my skin. He seems to spout the party line. I think he knows that it’s wrong but feels it’s his duty to fight the good cause.

Why do you discount the possibility he believes in what he’s saying?
That’s the other alternative — that he really believes it — but then he’s sort of gullible. You have to read his blog knowing that he’s a cheerleader, whereas a guy like Matt Yglesias is less of a cheerleader.

Damn straight. Ezra and I used to have joint birthday parties and everything (woo mid-May!) but now I’m through with him and his advocacy for good causes. Who needs that?

Second, Mickey Kaus is paid more money than I am:

How much do they pay you?
I had been making in the mid-90s, and then I had to take a pay cut along with everyone else, and I was making in the 80s. I’m fortunate to make any money as a blogger. There are some who make more. Most of them work for The Atlantic.

This is my solemn commitment to Jacob Weisberg: We may disagree about European public spending but we stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the subject of The Wire and I would happily entertain offers to go do a Kaus-esque 4-5 posts a week for $80,000 a year. Given the massive reduction in output that would entail, it’ll be easy to purge the “posts that say mean things about Jacob Weisberg” from my arsenal of topics. What’s more, while I don’t share Kaus’ visceral and overwhelming hatred of teacher’s unions, I do support substantial reforms to teacher compensation systems that most union leaders oppose.