The Kossacks: Growing Force on the Left

Did you know that the bloggers at Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's Daily Kos call themselves Kossacks? I didn't, until I read it in Dean Barnett's insightful article, "Kos Party: Is the Daily Kos infiltrating the Democratic Party, or remaking it in their image?" Barnett's piece appeared this morning in the Daily Standard – the Weekly Standard's daily Web news feature. Barnett writes:

"[P}erhaps Moulitsas is trying to usher a different kind of Democratic politician to the fore – the kind of politician who is unconstrained by the traditional urge to appear civil. Moulitsas has long been associated with Howard Dean and was instrumental in Dean's ascension to the DNC chairmanship. This ascension came only days after Dean proudly proclaimed that he `hated' Republicans. … the Kos community shows the highest regard for the most passionately strident commentary and has little regard for common decorum. The Kossacks seem to believe that if they could just be heard by the entire country, the Democratic party's losing streak would come to an end."

Possibly in deference to "common decorum" and civility, Barnett neglects to remind readers that Moulitsas was a principal villain of the Bloggergate scandal, in which former Dean operative Zephyr Teachout revealed that the Howard Dean campaign paid bloggers – specifically Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong of MyDD – for political support.

"[T]o be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment -- but it was very clearly, internally, our goal," wrote Teachout in a January 10 blog entry. Teachout headed the Dean campaign's Internet outreach program.

Apparently, the Weekly Standard's Dean Barnett has been keeping tabs on Kos for some time. Last month, he posted a profile of the site called, "Taking Kos Seriously" and subtitled, "The Daily Kos is the most popular and important force in the blogosphere; it's a fact with which Democrats are just now coming to grips."