Author and Slate blogger Mickey Kaus has several friends at the Los Angeles Times, but for years he has been advocating the demise of the paper — partly in the hope that a news outlet more to his liking would rise from the chaos. He says now the time is right for someone to launch a paper aimed at the Westside (he lives in Venice) — and he nominates Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Over a million people live here. Affluent people. People semi-obsessively concerned with local issues like crime, traffic, development, city and state politics and ill-served by the magisterial L.A. Times in far off downtown, which has to cover all of Southern California and seems to think paying attention to the West Side is somehow elitist, if not racist. ... You could hire five reporters--cheap, these days--and you'd have about four more reporters covering the area than the Times has. If they're the right reporters it shouldn't be that difficult to steal the Times' richest readers and the advertisers who want to reach them. (Many of those readers already get the New York Times for its national and international coverage. You would be the local supplement.) ... P.S.: If the LAT loses the West Side--well, let's note that the paper is already in what looks like a death spiral....

We want to know whom Mayor Villaraigosa is dating, and we want to see her picture. And if John Edwards visits his mistress at the Beverly Hilton and gets chased into a bathroom by National Enquirer reporters--hey, you know, maybe that's a story! (The LAT didn't think so.) By covering politics in a way that got at least a few hundred thousand readers to pay attention, you could take the first, big step toward changing the apathetic culture of Southern California (the culture that lets Democratic interest groups fill the void and call the shots).

Anyone with some money want to be our Graham? Wouldn't take all that much money. ... Not you, Burkle! ... Mr. Anschutz? How about it? You wouldn't have to use swear words. Honest. ... Or Gov. Schwarzenegger. Got something better to do when you leave office?