That seems to be the reaction to the fact that my broadcast partner is a political consultant.

[S]ince I have chosen to work in politics I can't hide how I make a living. My life is one big disclosure.

You are able to attack my work for Mark Kennedy, because FEC rules require expenditures to be publicly reported. You are able to see that I was paid a one-time fee from Bachmann's campaign, because it was publicly reported. You are able to attack me for my work with the Campaign for St. Paul's Future, because it was publicly disclosed. You can attack my previous employment with the Republican Party of Minnesota because it was properly disclosed.

Is this fair? Yes, it is and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Part of what makes Michael effective -- and thus annoying to DFLers -- is that he's a pro and a veteran, even though he is young. To be honest, part of my pleasure of doing The Final Word is that I interview Michael. I did not know him before asking him to do the show. My thought was to talk on the air about what he does because it's an interesting side to the political campaign that other shows cannot see. And he's done this long enough that he has a sense of history about how campaigns work.

The left hires people who are not professionals to run blogs. Some like Kos or Joshua Micah Marshall become eminently popular because the left needs nothing so much as a voice telling them to ignore the cognitive dissonance between their push for cosmic justice and the real world they live in. Others become part of the party machine as amateurs, and fail to grasp what it is they are criticizing. Dislike his work if you wish but Michael's a real guy making a real living at a real job, and that means politicians pay him for political research. If I could just make economic research pay so well...