Former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox takes us Inside the Cult of Kos with a TIME magazine feature on the Yearly Kos convention. It turns out that Markos Moulitsas Zuniga is one sexy, charismatic, drill sergeant of a manly man. And a charismatic S.O.B. to boot.
Some excerpts:
- Compact and wiry, Moulitsas, 34, exudes quivering intensity. He speaks in staccato paragraphs, punctuated by intense stares and a raised eyebrow. His eyes bulge slightly outward, as if reacting to the pressure of all the ideas inside his head.
- He’s the left’s own Kurt Cobain and Che Guevera rolled into one, dripping sex appeal for progressives for whom debate has become synonymous with losing, who need a muscular liberal answer to the cowboy swagger adopted by the Bush Administration and its fans.
- Called in to mediate disputes among community members, Moulitsas has all the patience of a drill sergeant. “I get it all the time: ‘Such-and-such was mean to me,’” he says in a mock whine. “I feel like I’m in high school. Suck it up, this is politics.” More to the point, “This is war.”
- Adam Nagourney, a political reporter for the New York Times . . . praises Moulitsas’s political insight but notes that the Daily Kos phenomenon is a product of charisma: “He’s got it and he knows it.”
He’s a veritable John Wayne of blogging.
