While there's no such thing as a shorter Mickey Kaus, at least physiologically speaking, Jesse Taylor at Pandagon.net has distilled the essence of Kaus:

"Kerry's bad, Kerry Kabuki, Kerry Kerry Kerry's bad bad bad, why Bush's showing in New Hampshire is just as good as Reagan's in '84, so don't worry, Kerry's bad, Kerry and who's going to be the kamikaze to take him down, lots of stuff on why Dean is a failure as a candidate, Kerry's bad, Dean's the failure to point out why he's bad, Dean's a horrible candidate and everyone hates Kerry, I'm going to F____g Curse because Democrats are awful, as are the poll services that measure how well they're going to do."

If Jacob Weisberg had the brains God gave a squirrel, he'd sack the hack and offer Jesse Taylor Slate's blogger slot. Jesse's the better writer, by far, and, unlike Kaus, he doesn't have any pathological obsessions that he assumes everyone else shares.

P.S. -- The official recipe for essence of Kaus is two parts ricin to one part Rogaine, fermented in Lucianne Goldberg's oldest pair of support hose for three months.