How did a baby-faced blogger become a power player in the Democratic establishment? An online-only version of Radar Magazine's interview with Markos Moulitsas, the man behind Daily Kos

OUT OF LEFT FIELD Moulitsas, 36, has turned Daily Kos into a potent political force

Not so long ago, a lot of Democratic politicians didn't know what the hell a "kos" was, much less why they might want one on a daily basis. But after the party's gangbusters performance in the 2006 midterm elections, capturing more congressional seats than they had in decades, Markos Moulitsas—founder and leading light of Daily Kos, a progressive political blog that draws about 20 million visits a month—has emerged as one of the most prominent and powerful voices on Team Blue.

Not without reason: Plenty of liberals credit him and the members of his online community with spearheading last year's electoral landslide. While the well-shod consultants who've long ruled the party establishment were busy warning Dems against the dangers of being perceived as girlish pinko surrender droids, Kos's free advice was to take a firm stance against the war in Iraq. (That the Kos community has become a formidable fund-raising machine offered some extra incentive to toe that line.)

High-profile proof of his newfound elite status in the party was on prominent display last summer when seven of eight Democratic presidential hopefuls (Joe Biden was the exception—he had a book to hawk) appeared at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago. By contrast, the Democratic Leadership Council—an insidery corporate-funded organization that Kos casts as the synthetic Ivan Drago to his populist Rocky in the internal battle of the Democratic party—drew exactly none at its annual hoedown.

Radar recently caught up with the grassroots guru to talk about the 2008 presidential field, the Republican skeleton in his closet, and the nasty rumor that he's a covert CIA operative.

Radar: Did you ever imagine you'd be labeled as a Democratic kingmaker?
Markos Moulitsas: It's by people who really don't understand how this thing works. The candidates didn't come to YearlyKos to kiss my ring. If I endorsed Hillary Clinton on the Daily Kos tomorrow, 90 percent of the comments would be "Fuck you!" [Laughs.] In the netroots community, we've created an environment—and by "we" I mean bloggers and people like me—where we're teaching people to think for themselves.

I started blogging in early 2002, then I applied to the CIA.

Were you surprised she showed up at your convention after you called her "a passionless machine" in your Washington Post opinion piece last year?
If she didn't show up, she would've suffered repercussions accordingly.

Meaning what, exactly?
If she wins the nomination, she'll need us to win the general election. One of John Kerry's problems was it took months for netroots people to decide to fight for him in general. It was kind of like, "Oh, I'll vote for him, but don't expect me to waste my weekend campaigning on his behalf." I think the Hillary people realize that they're really gonna need the netroots to rally behind her candidacy if she's the nominee—and the best way to achieve that is to give us proper respect.

So you didn't have to woo her to get her there?
Oh, I didn't do anything. I mean, she was invited. She just took longer than most to agree to go. I think her advisers were worried that she'd go and people would throw rotten tomatoes at her.

I mean, they did to a certain extent. She was booed pretty roundly.
Oh, when she sits there and talks about how wonderful Washington lobbyists are—I mean, you don't have to be Hillary Clinton to get booed in that situation.


KOS TV Moulitsas at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago
In that same Post piece you also said that you thought Hillary would fail as a candidate in the same way Lieberman did in '04. But according to Vegas oddsmakers these days, she's got the nomination locked up.
I wouldn't go that far. But there hasn't been anybody else who's really engaged people. Obama draws huge crowds, but then he gives them nothing. He's running it like a front-runner as opposed to a long shot. So, I think it's really a failure on Obama's part.

You're still publicly undecided.
And privately. My choice will be Edwards, Obama, or Richardson. I love Edwards's rhetoric, but he's running against history. We have the chance to nominate the first African American or woman or Latino, and he's the white guy. For me it's going to come down to whoever has the clearest position on Iraq.

What would you like to see the next president do about the war?
To get out as soon as possible with absolutely no residual forces.

You're perceived by the mainstream press as very liberal. Do you consider yourself a leftie?
People are hung up on this left/right thing, which is completely ridiculous and stupid. I'm not a traditional liberal in any sense. I'm very libertarian. I'm working on a book called The Libertarian Democrat. The label is just a way to try to demonize and marginalize. I speak of myself as a liberal—but as a way to try to bring the word back and reclaim it. Sort of like "queer." Obviously, I don't think it's a bad thing to be a liberal though. It is a bad thing, on the other hand, to pretend that centrism is inherently good.

Which brings to mind Bill Clinton. According to conventional wisdom it was his ability to play the middle that made him such a formidable politician.
I personally think Bill Clinton destroyed the Democratic Party. He was a survivor and was under assault by the right wing, but he worked to protect himself at the expense of his party. We lost control of Congress during his tenure. So to me what's dangerous is this notion that having a strong idea about the future of our country is inherently bad, because it's partisan.