The Mickey Kaus cachet, writes R.J. Smith in the August issue of Los Angeles magazine:

Smith writes that "Kaus's reputation rests on skewering received wisdom and those who receive it." He recounts Kaus' roots -- Beverly Hills upbringing, Harvard and Harvard Law, son of state supreme court justice Otto Kaus, writer for the contrarian Washington Monthly -- to explain the Kausfiles penchant for almost exclusively chiding Democrats and liberals: he's tweaking his friends, neighbors and family. Kaus says it's not that he likes the conservatives who run things now, it's just they are outside his universe.

Weighing in from the left, Robert Scheer sees a less benign effect and suggests in the piece that Kaus should fess up and join the other side. Smith implies that Kaus, as a blogger for Slate with a daily audience in the tens of thousands and a deal that provides his posts not be edited, largely escapes criticism:

But Slate editor Jacob Weisberg and a friend give Kaus props:

Smith points out, finally, that Kaus' 1992 book The End of Equality influenced national welfare reform, and as a writer for Washington Monthly and The New Republic his credentials are more mainstream than outsider.

Smith, a senior editor of the magazine, writes the Media column and had previously written a piece on California columnist Jill Stewart, a buddy of Kaus's who he put forth on Kausfiles as a candidate for governor in the Gray Davis recall. The story on Kaus is available on newstands but not yet online at Los Angeles magazine.