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But someone is missing: Armando. A favorite blogger and foreign policy wonk, Armando earned the privilege of posting on the front page of Daily Kos. But, before the festivities began in Las Vegas, National Review Online revealed this hero of the liberal blogosphere to be Armando Llor?ns-Sar, a corporate lawyer in Puerto Rico who has represented Wal-Mart and Clorox. Even though this information is a matter of public record, and even though Llor?ns-Sar's picture and affiliation are listed on his firm's website, his unmasking sent shockwaves through the Daily Kos community and led Llor?ns-Sar to quit the site--and, according to bloggers here, cancel his appearance at the convention, lest his pastime create a conflict for his employers.
Many topics will be discussed this weekend, but the bloggers keep coming back to Armando. They don't mind that Armando is a corporate lawyer or that he practices his trade for corporations. What really upsets them is that his seems like a cautionary tale about what can happen as the movement matures and their newfound celebrity threatens their anonymity. In hushed conversations, they refer bitterly to the "outing of Armando."
Turns out that other bloggers, including former prosecutor Reddhedd from FireDogLake, are also from the wrong side of the ideological sheep/goat divvy-up.
And the majority of the conventioneers are old New Left types [I was a New Left type before I grew up] going back to their pre-pubescent lalaland fantasy life:
The divide between the partisans and the ideologues is generational. In addition to being white and wealthy, the average Daily Kos reader is about 45 years old, which is clear from all the gray hair at the Riviera. What emerges from the weekend is that the leadership and public faces of the liberal blogosphere are young, while the rank and file is middle-aged. The twenty- and thirtysomethings have created a space for the forty- and fiftysomethings of the old New Left to reconnect with the political activism of their youth. The young, tech-savvy pioneers of the actual blogs tend to be pro-partisan, while the baby-boomers are pro-ideology. "Because we never knew a time as activists when Democrats were the natural ruling party (pre-1994)," 32-year-old Chris Bowers, who blogs at MyDD, says via e-mail, "my guess is that we tend to understand the need for partisan-based opposition and new tactics quicker than others."
So mindless techies screech partisan blather while ancient farts want to re-activate the failed leftist policies of their halcyon draft-dodging youth. If the Dems actually get a majority in the House and/or Senate, it will be the proverbial car-chasing dog who actually catches the car---what to do next? The programmatic oldsters will want to tone down the nut-root techies, n'est-ce pas? Because they can remember back when [92-94] they were actually in possession of Congress and the White House. Of course, that was when Bill stained the honor of the military with his gay "don't ask, don't tell" sleaze and Hillary tried a stealth Health Care takeover by Big Government. After '94, in the words of Billy Jeff, "the era of Big Govt is over." The New Republic article notes that, with its youth, the techies avoid the policy grind and focus on, what else, themselves, as heedless callow youth basks in its own mirror reflections until self-absorbtion takes over:
The attendance at various panels tells the same story. The labor roundtable attracts no more than two or three dozen attendees. Meanwhile, a panel called "Meta Kos"-- featuring Moulitsas--attracts hundreds of Yearly Kos attendees (a.k.a. Kossacks). Their talk is not about tax policy or abortion but issues like the outing of Armando. "What happened to Armando is absolutely horrible," says Moulitsas.
Perhaps it's just because the medium is so new, but there are few things the bloggers like talking about more than themselves. In Las Vegas, the medium is the message
Meet the New Bubbas, Same as the Old Bubbas.
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