Posting Truth to Power

Well I finally got around to profiling Steve Benen, of The Carpetbagger Report (and The Daou Report, and Midterm Madness). 

Steve is a nationally recognized blogger who writes from Essex Junction. I got a chance to talk with him two weeks ago, just a couple days after he met with President Clinton. The former prez hosted a bunch of liberal bloggers in his Harlem office. Here's the group picture, from John at Americablog. Steve is the guy standing next to Bubba, on the left.

In person, Steve comes across as smart, frighteningly articulate and exceedingly modest. I think he was a little surprised that I wanted to interview him. But why wouldn't I? His insane work habits alone make him worth writing about.

In researching my story, I managed to get a couple quotes about Steve that I wanted to pass along. One of them made it into the story, one didn't, but both, I think, are worth sharing.

Says Kevin Drum:

I've been a big admirer of Steve's for a long time.  It's not that there's one subject he covers especially well, it's that he covers practically the entire political scene and always seems able to get straight to the heart of what's going on — and he does it calmly and surgically.  His breadth of knowledge is really remarkable.

Says Joan McCarter, mcjoan of Daily Kos:

What impresses me most about Steve's work is the breadth of what he covers, and the acuity with which he does it. Whether it's the war in Iraq, goings-on on Capitol Hill, or popular culture, his stuff is great — solidly researched and always with an interesting angle. He also finds underreported and under-blogged (is that a word?) stories — there are always nuggets at his place that no one else has picked up.

Not surprising, really. The guy is relentless.

Oh, and another thing that I didn't have room to mention — Steve broke the Tinky Winky story! Remember the media uproar in 1999, when Jerry Falwell claimed that Tinky Winky the teletubby was gay? Steve was working at Americans United for Separation of Church and State at the time, and he wrote the press release that alerted the media to an article about Tinky Winky in Falwell's National Liberty Journal.

Not that he would have told me about it. Thank his wife Eve for nudging him to divulge that one.

UPDATE 9/29: And thank Matthew Thorsen for taking that excellent photo! Sorry, forgot to credit him.