The L.A. Times today takes its turn trying to figure out Mickey Kaus -- "a brainy, iconoclastic dart-thrower." The widely read, Venice-based blogger for Slate tells Bob Baker that he'll probably vote for Schwarzenegger and thinks Bustamante lacks guts.

Other selective tidbits:

He composes in a writing voice that is harsher than his spoken one — demanding, impatient. At his best, Kaus cuts to the heart of the matter....

You know what really ticks Mickey off? The New York Times. The scandal over Jayson Blair's phony stories, which led to the departure of arrogantly brilliant Executive Editor Howell Raines, was cathartic entertainment to Kaus. He blamed Raines and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for an increase in liberal bias in the paper's articles and headlines. Its coverage of economics frosts him...

Many Kaus postings these days sound, well, grumpy. The Los Angeles Times, in particular, suffers his wrath nearly every day for recall coverage that Kaus dismisses as soft, politically correct, late or tilted toward Bustamante or Davis. He has engaged in discourses about the technical reasons the Los Angeles Times poll shows Davis with more support than other polls do, suggesting at least the appearance of bias...

"I have been very cranky lately," Kaus says with no trace of guile. "I used to be funny and now I'm angry and I can't explain it. I've become crankier, and I hope it's a phase that passes. It could be recall related, it could be I just lost a groove I had, a whimsical quality that's in remission."

With that, he laughs. "I am defensive for California in the sense that I'm reacting against all the East Coast pundits and the L.A. Times for saying this is an embarrassment to California. The recall provisions are flawed, but there's still a lot of good that's coming out of this."

He also tries out again his rationale for giving most Republicans and conservatives a pass, saying he discounts their importance. That might hold more water for me if, you know, the GOP didn't hold the White House, Congress and AM talk radio, and if so many of the media & blogger pals he hangs with in L.A. weren't conservative-leaning. The story ran in Calendar, but appears to be free on the recall part of the LAT site. (Registration required, of course.)

Note: There's a photo of Mickey at work (play?) here.

Separately: L.A. blogger Luke Ford does a mock interview with Kaus, and says he's now in hot water with the Kauspals (scroll down to 'Why Cathy Seipp, Emmanuelle Richard Are Mad At Me')