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If you want to understand Markos Moulitsas, there are a few thing you need to know:

Number one, he’s a shrewd guy. Number two, he’s all about the politics of any and every situation. His book candidly acknowledges that he himself is agnostic on most every issue. The only unbreakable rule in his political canon is that he hates his opponent. And number three is that while he may be the owner of the Daily Kos and the chap that the community is named for, he doesn’t control it. Believe me, he wishes he could.

This has been an uncomfortable week for the left, and all their smart analysts know it. Two of America’ enemies came to American soil and insulted our president and insulted our country in terms that were strikingly familiar to those that the American left frequently employs.

Something similar happened in 2004. Right before the election, Osama bin Laden issued one of his blustery communiqués. The contents of bin Laden’s message suggested that he had somehow received a priority viewing of “Fahrenheit 9/11” amidst the rocks of Waziristan. At the time, Jim Geraghty penned a memorable blog post saying the time had definitely come for America’s left to take a look in the mirror.

Of course, America’s leftists weren’t going to engage in any such contemplative gazing any time soon. They weren’t bothered by the fact that Osama lifted his talking points from their own playbook; they frequently say (and really believe) that Bush and the Republicans pose a more dire threat to the Union than does Radical Islam.

But the left should have gazed into that mirror anyway just as a matter of politics. The fact that Osama bin Laden parroted their talking points was, to put it mildly, to their electoral detriment. A hard-headed look into the mirror would have suggested a dialing down of the rhetoric, lest they be hit with the same whammy again.

ALAS, MEMBERS OF THE DAILY KOS are incapable of dialing down the rhetoric. When America’s greatest enemy, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, appeared on “60 Minutes,” they were won over by his charms because he hated George Bush as much as they did. They wrote gushing blog posts praising his keen wit and gentle demeanor. Again, this is another political loser. And I think Markos knows it.

Markos and I aren’t pen pals or phone buddies. We don’t text message each other with any regularity, and we’ve never broken bread together. In truth, we’ve never spoken or met. But having read every word that he’s publicly written the past two years, I think I understand at least a little bit how he thinks.

I’m sure Markos is appalled by the developments of this week. That’s not because he’s outraged by Chavez’s or Ahmadenijad’s comments; he considers making such analyses and reaching such conclusions either above or below his pay-grade. All he cares about is the politics of any situation and he surely knows that the events this week are bad news for the left.

Part of the reason he knows it’s bad politics is because the progressive blogosphere, which he putatively (but does not in actuality) lead, could not exercise any discipline when Chavez dangled red meat in front of it. Their knees jerked, and they wrote rubbish like how they preferred Chavez and Ahmadenijad to Bush. Any Americans paying attention would be appalled. More importantly, a lot of Americans who don’t really pay attention, i.e. the vast majority of the country, can’t help but notice that America’s enemies are insulting our nation on our soil. And they’re using the rhetoric of America’s left. In a crude equation, therefore, America’s left is the equivalent of America’s enemy.

And as Markos knows, politics is all about crude equations. Gas prices go down, the incumbent benefits. The stock market sags, the incumbent takes a hit. Etcetera. That’s how it goes.

BUT HERE’S WHERE MARKOS is truly screwed (to coin a phrase). There’s nothing that he can do to control his minions. Just as was the case during the Israel-Hezbollah war where the Daly Kos rank and file impoliticly took Hezbollah’s side, there’s nothing that Markos can do but write a brief blog post where he professes to be agnostic about the issue.

Today Markos belatedly entered the Chavez fray by refusing to enter the fray. In a post that detailed his reaction to an MSNBC booker trying to get him on the air to discuss Chavez’s comments, Markos wrote:

I just got a call from an MSNBC booker. She wanted to know if I wanted to go on the air to talk about Hugo Chavez. Apparently, he went off on some rant at the UN.

I said, "Why would I? Who cares about Hugo Chavez?"

The booker said, "well, it's all over talk radio and the blogs." Talk radio, of course, being Rush Limbaugh and company. The blogs, of course, being the wingnutosphere, happily promoting the latest Horrible Dictator Who Says Mean Things About Bush (unlike the ones in the Middle East, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan who are our "allies").

I said, "Well, this is a stupid topic. It means nothing. I am focused on things that actually matter to us." (Emphasis Added)

Given his position, that’s the best he can do. I bet he would like to say something like, “We on the left condemn the rhetoric of Hugo Chavez. Politics ends at the ocean’s edge, and our country stands behind our Commander in Chief.” That would be good politics, which explains why Nancy Pelosi tried to clumsily execute just such a gambit yesterday.

But Markos can’t do any such thing, because he knows his community would turn on him as surely as it turned on the reliably rabid partisan Charlie Rangel. The best he can do is opt not to play, and even offer a little consolation to the peanut gallery by saying, “P.S. Memo to Chuck Rangel -- if you don't like world leaders saying mean things about the United States in your congressional district, then perhaps it's time to move the United Nations somewhere where people aren't such wilting flowers.”

Confession time – every blogger would like the traffic and the prestige that Markos has. But I have it pretty good here at Hugh’s place. I knew this past Sunday that I could offer my honest opinion of who won the Webb-Allen debate without having the whole audience take a tantrum worthy of a two year old.

Markos has no such faith. And he’s right not to.

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