and now, a talking head i actually like

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i've never talked about my friend mark, but something came up recently as regards him, so let's do that.

mark levine is one of the smartest, most accomplished guys i know: ivy-league educated, fulbright scholar, massive over-achiever, dyed-in-the-wool liberal, perennial optimist--in other words, my polar opposite in almost every way.

to give you an insight into mark's nature: dragged to an audition for wheel of fortune while an undergrad at harvard--he got on, the friend who dragged him there did not--mark, suddenly seeing this as his best shot at paying for law school, left nothing to chance. while the other contestants were no doubt crossing their fingers and thinking good thoughts, mark spent every night up until game day in the library poring over letter-frequency charts and books on cryptography and code-breaking, and calculating the physics of how hard he should spin the wheel based on its position. the result?



at the time i met him, mark was in his second year of law school at yale, and was visiting los angeles in preparation for a summer-associate gig at the firm where he would ultimately end up working after graduation. for whatever reason, we hit it off pretty much immediately.

how would i describe our relationship? to paraphrase hillary clinton, mark and i started an argument in the spring of 1991, and almost 20 years later, we're still talking.

always passionate about politics and policy, mark abandoned a successful and lucrative law career in order to take a job as counsel for congressman barney frank; and then, once he'd had his fill of intrigue on the hill, began a new career in radio, where for the last several years his show, the inside scoop, has given his listeners a perspective on washington and national/world events with a depth that they're not likely to get anywhere else in radioland.

i've watched mark evolve from his stiff, awkward beginnings into a polished, confident radio--and now, tv--personality, and struggle with his characteristic focused tenacity to make a name for himself in one of the toughest, most competitive businesses out there.

and it looks like all that hard work is finally beginning to pay off: he is now being heard nationally as a fill-in host on air america, and--the reason for this post, actually--just appeared last week for the first time on fox's the o'reilly factor, where, in the limited time bill allowed him, he gave as good as he got:



[incidentally, this clip is an instructive lesson as to how o'reilly works--avoiding his more formidable opponent and instead devoting most of the segment to a back-and-forth with the blonde bonehead who really contributed nothing of substance other than her apparent eagerness to act as an easy foil for the host.]

if you're weary of the kind of janeane garofalo-level drivel that passes for progressive talk radio these days and would prefer an informed, in-depth exploration of the issues of the day, i urge you to go over to radioinsidescoop.com and check mark out--in addition to his ongoing broadcasts, he has all of his past shows archived and available for free.

oh, and if you're in the d.c. area and think you can keep up, he's single ;)