Thanks, Rob. So I actually watched a bit of Kaus's Bloggingheads, which wasn't nearly as enraging as I'd expected: Kaus is too petulant to be genuinely offensive. But his assault demonstrates something interesting. Kaus's fury towards me appears related to my judgment that "neoliberals did much to correct the Democratic Party's image, but not much to update its policies." I think I overstated that case somewhat, but not by much. Kaus, however, is a breathing, walking, balding example of my unadulterated argument.
His criticisms of me appear to take two main forms. The first is that I'm on "the far left." The second is that I'm young. Now, unless your spectrum runs from Al From to Sam Brownback, it's six types of absurd to place me on the "far left." But fine: Maybe Mickey is such a firebreathing conservative that advocating for universal health care really does make me a Communist. And here's where it gets interesting. Mickey's latest post at Slate is anchored by a gushing encomium to my friend Jon Cohn. Jon is set to release a wonderful book called Sick (which you can, and should, preorder), and recently gave a promotional talk at LA's Venice Family Clinic. Mickey attended and it blew his mind. "I have seen the future of health care punditry," he writes, "and its name is Jonathan Cohn."
