Just watching Matt Tiabbi, author of Spanking the Donkey, interviewd on The Daily Show.

Liked the guy immediately, then he told a little anecdote about his time covering John Kerry's campaign that ended like this: "So I have to give him credit for that, as much of a dufus as he is."

Nice! From that moment on, I was in full swoon.

This from an obvious leftie. The good kind, willing to tell the truth. No BS. The Dems nominated a dufus again. Twice in a row. (What is wrong with you people, by the way?)

Sure, I voted for him, and I'll bet Tiabbi did too, but that doesn't mean we have to pretend the guy had the slightest clue how to relate to (fellow?) human beings.

Ahhhhhh. It's an old story. But he didn't harp on it--as I am; whoops--just rolled off his tongue. Every moment of the interview felt honest.

And when Jon pointed out that journalists come off uglier than the politicians, I knew this guy could see clearly through the crap.

(Please don't tell anybody I often slither through that unspeakable profession ("profession.") Let's just keep that our little secret.)

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Now then. I'd love to read Tiabbi's book, except for pet peeve #37, gifted writers who also work as reporters but are too lazy to actually write their book and instead just select a bunch of columns for their publisher to slap between two covers.

Come on. I would love to read your book, Matt, but first you have to write a book.

That mini format is lame enough for daily or weekly publications, who the hell wants to read it in a book? The whole point of diving into a book is that you can sink your teeth into something deeper, longer in narrative arc, not just in number of pages. A freaking storyline would be nice. Even a modest attempt.

So maybe I'll check it out at the bookstore, read a couple of the columns, hopefully generate a handful of gleeful smiles. And wait for him to actually write a book.

(Or maybe, just maybe he'll surprise the hell out of me and somehow transcend the form, but hard to see how that's actually possible. Will let you know if I was wrong.)

Meanwhile, looking forward to looking for his byline. He writes for The NY Press, Rolling Stone and The Nation, none of them a regular read for me, but maybe I'll start looking.