To somewhat add on to Matt's comments, I don't think Chris Bowers' post on the wonkosphere shows precisely what he, or Atrios, thinks it does. The semi-complicated backstory is that Matt Stoller wrote a post on TPM Cafe taking the 60s left to task, and a bunch of somewhat older, less netrootsy bloggers struck back at it. This caused Bowers to ruminate on why those writers don't participate more in the blogosphere as a whole, and Atrios to wonder why they think themselves above the muck and mud of politics.
But who are we talking about, actually? Bowers names "Josh Marshall, Max Sawicky, Nathan Newman, Ed Kilgore, Jo Ann-Mort, Todd Gitlin, Mark Schmidt, and M. J. Rosenberg." Let's take it one by one. Marshall got his start as a liberal journalist and now runs an activisty website mainly dedicated to flooding the zone on various Republican scandals and missteps. He also funds TPM Muckraker, which tries to create those scandals and uncover the missteps. Max Sawicky is an economist at the leading labor-liberal think tank that spends it's time doing push-back against the country's center-right consensus. Nathan Newman is a policy director at progressive States, a grassroots organizing institute for local and statewide progressivism. Ed Kilgore was, until recently, at the DLC, which, say what you will, is certainly deep in the mud. Mort is an opinionated writer on Israeli politics, Gitlin is a longtime organizer and progressive writer, Schmidt used to work on the Hill and in foundations and now does progressive writing, and M.J Rosenberg is among the leading voices for a humane, two-state solution in Israel.
Again: Some of these folks have their problems, but they're not, in any way, floating above the political demimonde. There are no Broders or Nagourneys on the list. Their primary mode of participation may not be in the netroots, per se, but that shouldn't be confused with an actual disassociation from politics, or progressivism writ large.
