The New York Times is reporting that if Barbara Lee vacates her seat as congresswoman for California's district thirteen in the San Francisco Bay Area - which just happens to be my district - Markos Moulitsas, of Daily Kos fame, has told colleagues that he may run:
It is difficult for me to know just what to make of this story.Representative Barbara Lee of California may not wind up as our woman in Havana — disputing reports that she was seeking the nomination to be ambassador — but when she does leave Congress, there may be a nationally known liberal waiting to run for her seat: Markos Moulitsas.
Mr. Moulitsas, the founder of the liberal blog Daily Kos and a Berkeley resident, has told associates that he is interested in pursuing a run for elected office.
A number of years ago there was a guy on Maryscott O'Connor's now defunct My Left Wing blog who went under the moniker Stu Piddy. Stu, who was also a Daily Kos refugee, once claimed that Markos was eventually going to run for President of the United States.
I told Stu that I had taken off my right sneaker and placed it beside my keyboard. I told him that if Markos Moulitsas ever runs for president that I would braise that sneaker in a homemade marinara and that I would eat it over penne pasta with a nice glass of Pinot Noir for my lunch.
Well, I still feel pretty safe on that bet, but slightly less safe than I was yesterday.
The main problem that Markos might get from someone such as myself is that, whatever else anyone might make of Daily Kos, there is no question that it is also a venue for anti-Semitic anti-Zionism.
This is not to say that Markos is anti-Semitic.
I have never - not once - seen any indication that Markos Moulitsas is any kind of a racist.
Nonetheless, Daily Kos is an on-line political space, more or less representative of the progressive-left, wherein the Jewish State of Israel and, implicitly, Jews in general, come in for constant defamation and ringing endorsements of contempt.
Markos has, personally, always refused to discuss the Arab-Israel conflict in the pages of his blog, because there is simply no upside to it for someone such as himself. I don't blame him for that, at all. In fact, I would say that it was a smart move. He even refuses to allow Arab-Israel "diaries" space on the front page.
For Markos the Arab-Israel conflict is a remarkable pain in the ass. That guy has probably received more email from members of his blog whining and bitching and moaning and complaining about something that someone said in the comments around the Arab-Israel conflict than anyone else in four counties.
If he runs, I wish him well... but not too well.
I've never eaten a sneaker before, after all.
{A Big Tip 'O the Kippa to JayinPhiladelpha.}