"An ignorant person with a bad character is like an unarmed robber, but a learned person with a blog is a robber fully armed." -- Mickey Kaus
Robert Michael Kaus (; born July 6, 1951), better known as Mickey Kaus, is an American journalist, pundit, and author best known for writing Kausfiles, a "mostly political" blog which was featured on Slate until 2010. Kaus is the author of The End of Equality and had previously worked as a journalist for Newsweek, The New Republic, and Washington Monthly, among other places. Kaus attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School but has never practiced law. He has a brother, Stephen Kaus, who is a lawyer and occasional commentator on The Huffington Post. His late father was California Supreme Court Associate Justice Otto Kaus, a Democrat. He is not married. He currently resides in Venice Beach, California.
Kaus first wrote Slate's "Chatterbox" column in 1997 but started Kausfiles in 1999 as a private blog. It was perhaps the second major political blog in the United States (after Bob Somerby's The Daily Howler). In 2002, he returned to Slate at the invitation of editor Michael Kinsley. During 2003, the daily readership of Kausfiles varied between 15,000 and 30,000.
Stylistically the blog is most notable for its interior monologues including the ruse of a non-existent editor, as well as frequent, ironic exclamation points. Media critic James Wolcott, in his book Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants, uses Kaus as the archetypal example of a type of pundit he labels "counterintuitives". This type of pundit goes out of his way to stake out positions which run counter to conventional wisdom.
During the 2003 California recall, Kausfiles uncovered an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger by Oui magazine in which he boasted of participating in group sex. This post sparked a series of claims of sexual misconduct during Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding and acting career. Kaus later posted about a 1981 Today Show appearance where Schwarzenegger claimed that he deliberately damaged chimneys in order to boost demand for his bricklaying business, which was another scoop.
During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the blog displayed a strong and consistent distaste for John Kerry, despite the fact that Kaus endorsed Kerry and contributed to his campaign. Kausfiles has also consistently criticized the Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica radio station KCRW, media critic Howard Kurtz, and CNN President Jonathan Klein.
The blog also comments on the automotive industry and Kaus irregularly files automotive-centric "Gearbox" columns on Slate.
As a result of his run for the Senate, Kaus left Slate and hosted his blog on his campaign website. On September 20th, the Kausfiles blog has been relaunched on Newsweek
Kaus has identified himself as neoliberal. He tends to support liberal ends, including social equality (the topic of The End of Equality) and universal access to health care), but frequently attacks traditional liberal means of reaching those ends. Most notably, he was an influential proponent of welfare reform in the 1980s, and is a fierce critic of both labor unions (particularly automotive workers' unions and teachers' unions) and immigration reform (he supports the new Arizona anti-illegal-immigration law, calling to wait to see the law's practical effects before overturning it).
Kaus' constant criticisms of traditional liberalism have prompted some liberals (including his Bloggingheads sparring partner Robert Wright) to see him as a right-winger. His views, and willingness to attack the Democratic Party, have also made him popular with conservative writers.
Kaus usually supports Democratic politicians. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Kaus endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, while criticizing other Democrats including Barack Obama. In the 2006 U.S. Midterm Elections Kaus wrote that he hoped the Democrats would fail to take over the U.S. House of Representatives but take the Senate. He called the election "perverse" because he saw a Democratic victory as not impeding Bush's Iraq policy but helping his immigration policy. Nevertheless, Kaus still voted for Democrat Jane Harman.
Kaus is generally moderate on foreign policy (he is notably dovish on issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East), but spends little time writing about international topics.
On November 1, 2005, Kaus and journalist Robert Wright launched BloggingHeads.tv, a video weblog dialog or dia-vlog focusing on mostly-political current events. Kaus and Wright trade off from time to time with other bloggers and authors, discussing the headlines and latest developments and making predictions.
To exploit the visual side of the medium, Kaus sometimes uses visual aids such as an Al Gore mask and a stuffed moose. According to Kaus "Deploying the moose" symbolizes Pinch Sulzberger's idea of "the unaddressed important issue" similar to the "elephant in the room."
In an episode recorded February 8, 2006, Kaus said "half the Democrats are going to vote for McCain and I'm going to be one of them." Kaus linked to his own statement in a February 10, 2008 blog post with the words, "I can't believe I said this."
According to a March 1, 2010 report in L.A. Weekly, Kaus took out papers to run for the United States Senate. Kaus ran as a "Common Sense Democrat," stating that he did not expect to win, but hoped to raise issues.
In a March 2, 2010 entry on Kausfiles, Kaus announced that he had taken out nomination papers to run in the Senate primary for California against Barbara Boxer.
Kaus finished a distant third in the June 8th, 2010 Democratic primary election, with just 5.3% of the total vote (or 94,298 votes). Political unknown and movie producer Brian Quintana took second with 14.2%, while incumbent Barbara Boxer secured 80.5%, ensuring that she would continue on to the general election.
