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My Celebrity Crush: Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly

by Orlando 5/13/2009 - 3:22 pm   |

Is it bad form to mention a blogger on another blog? I don't know much about blog etiquette. Until about a year ago, I thought blogs were like MySpace pages: self-indulgent and of very little interest to anyone except the author and the author's close friends. 

That's not to say that I didn't read a couple. I do have some close friends, after all. But until I found myself starved for information about the Democratic primary campaign last winter, I'd never heard of Kos or TPM. I didn't know about Crooks and Liars or Five Thirty-Eight. I was so woefully uninformed. I thought if I wanted political news I had to read the paper or watch the increasingly inane television news.  

One day, in a fever of worry about my favorite presidential candidate, I turned to The Google. And may I just say, YAY. 

I found intelligent, funny, angry, concise, verbose, ridiculous, and brilliant blogs. Lots and lots of them. The best part? Not only could I read them, I could write my own. I could pour all my angst over the campaign into words instead of letting them fester in my brain. And Dag readers have been more indulgent than my close friends ever could have been!

I don't read the blogs with the frenzied mania of 2008. My side won so I can afford to be a little bit more relaxed this year. But, aside from the Dag boys, the blogger I read religiously every single day is Steve Benen. Aside from being adorable (which I know from his appearances on Rachel Maddow's show and NOT from any sort of cyber-stalking--promise), Benen is a skilled writer with an advanced sense of irony, a sarcastic streak, and a healthy dislike for Republicans. And, he covers pretty much everything going on in politics. What's not to love? 

I don't have a point to make here, except to declare that Benen is in especially good form today. You should check him out.  

"and NOT from cyber-stalking..." Might I suggest doing some cyber-stalking? It is pretty fun!
by Larry Jankens 5/13/2009 - 3:47 pm

"Might I suggest doing some cyber-stalking? It is pretty fun!"

And, for now at least, legal!

by Shantyhag (not verified) 5/13/2009 - 5:12 pm (re: Larry Jankens)

O, did you realize that Steve Benen linked back to this post? http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018166.php

Maybe I have a crush on him now too.

by Genghis 5/13/2009 - 5:25 pm
It's okay, G. Steve is an enlightened type. I don't think he'll care if a boy is crushing on him too.
by Orlando 5/13/2009 - 7:25 pm (re: Genghis)

Way to go Orlando, working hard getting Dagblog out there!  Maybe someone should send you a Dagblog.com teeshirt to wear this weekend.

Thanks for the link, nice.

by Bluesplashy 5/13/2009 - 8:41 pm (re: Genghis)

Well, if you want to be on Steve's good side, I'd suspect one thing you shouldn't do is say stuff like "My side won so I can afford to be a little bit more relaxed this year." It's all about the vigilance and the diligence, something is awful as the past 8 years can happen again in an instant.

by slappy magoo (not verified) 5/13/2009 - 5:29 pm

Correct.  Elections are important only in that they affect what happens in between them, which is what is really important.

by DF 5/13/2009 - 5:51 pm (re: slappy magoo)

Don't worry. When I mean I'm more relaxed, I mean I don't feel like I'm going to throw up every day. I'm still working on the ground. Look for me on the news this weekend in the all the coverage of the Notre Dame graduation. Obama supporters have a little something planned. 

Update: I read this comment and realized it makes might make me sound like I think I'm important..."Look for me on the news this weekend?" Barf.

What I meant is that I, along with many other committed volunteers, am still working at the grassroots level to postively impact our community and to keep Indiana blue. I might be on the news in the broad sense, like when the camera sweeps across a crowd that I am in. But I won't be actually speaking. Because that is scary and there are people more articulate than I to speak about our group and our purpose.

by Orlando 5/13/2009 - 7:24 pm (re: DF)

Hello. Yeah, Steve Benen is a mostly great blogger. He's smart and can dig into the principle of things. The snark can be funny, but his mock bafflement about ReRushlickin  (my flaky coinage) & conservative silliness or malice can be so deep that it gets tiring and could confuse unfamiliar visitors. Still, he's a must read. In addition, which OP didn't mention, is that the commenters are very sharp, cleverly humorous and well-informed as well. We (well I included others so it's not too narcissistic) go to lots of trouble to compose comments, often quite long and thoughtful - for no pay or much credit.

 

Even the trolls are often interesting, especially a long-running "entity" going as "Al." Al started out a sincere, "actual" rightist pedant who put up nearly archetypal talking points. Later (and we heard he died from some), parodists started doing him and now he is a sort of archetype from the collective unconscious - a transpersonal hive intelligence! He drops in from time to time, usually sounding the same but ocasionally more outré or spicy when an offbeat parodist is invovled (;-)  BTW I don't think he was "Uncle Al" of UseNet fame and also abrasively conservative when not talking science and endlessly promoting his chiral gravity theory.

by Neil B. ♪ (not verified) 5/13/2009 - 7:57 pm

As the self-anointed promoter-in-chief of dagblog, allow me to express some frustration. We've got over 1000 people dropping in read Orlando's praise of Steve but as so often happens with the occasional blockbuster post, hardly any visitors pause to read anything else. So if you're new to our humble blog and have read this far, I encourage you to check out the front page. We've got some great writers here, and we love to get the snark on. You won't be disappointed. Well not very disappointed anyway; clicks are cheap.

by Genghis 5/13/2009 - 9:04 pm

Well, my attempt to plug Steve Benen backfired a bit, albeit in a good way for Dag. I'm afraid he won't get nearly as many hits from Dag as this post has gotten from Political Animal.

For anyone reading, I hope you'll make Genghis happy and visit the Dag front page. We do have quality writers here, and they write about more than politics--which I realize might sound a bit like sacrilege to some.

As for me, in Steve's very nice link back to this post, he said it made him smile. So, my work here is done.

by Orlando 5/13/2009 - 10:03 pm

Most excellent.  A link to dag is much nicer response than a restraining order :)

by dijamo 5/14/2009 - 8:32 am (re: Orlando)

Yes indeed, you are totally right.

by data roaming (not verified) 7/24/2011 - 9:09 am (re: dijamo)

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