Kausfiles goes indie

Mickey Kaus posts that Slate was quite prepared to let him keep blogging about politics as a candidate for U.S. Senate, perhaps in the form of a Diary of a Longshot. But he made the decision to step off the site for now, "though I reserve the right to come crawling back."

It's simply this: I'm going to start a campaign web site, and the only reason anybody might go to it is if the blog is there. So I'm moving the blog there.

You'll still be able to get to the blog by going to www.kausfiles.com. That URL will simply no longer take you to Slate. It will probably initially take you to an inexpensive blog page. Then, if all goes according to plan in the well-oiled machine that is the Kaus campaign, it will take you to an inexpensive state of the art political site that will both harbor the blog and, yes, harness the power of social media on behalf of intra-party dissent. [Tap into Tea Party anger?--ed Maybe some of that too]

Will the Kaus campaign be oiled by Democrats disaffected with Sen. Barbara Boxer or by Republicans delighted at the chance to soften her up for free in advance of the real campaign in the fall? I guess we'll all find out. But now that he's just another candidate instead of a curiosity on the local political-blogosphere scene, I don't expect to have much to say about the substance of Kaus' engagement on the issues. If I followed his tactical moves, I'd have to follow Boxer's, and Campbell's and Fiorina's, and the rest. No time for that; we'll be hanging out at the nexus of politics and media.

Photo by Stephen Kaus