Mark MacKinnon: shrub's slimeball ad & media director.

He says he got to know Governor shrub while he was living in Texas and became his friend. He's talking on a panel on C-span2. I disliked him immediately just from looking at him, before I knew who he was.

His friend is a war criminal. Since he makes money by supporting a war criminal, I think that makes him a war criminal too.

was the editor of the Daily Texan at UT. I observed him up close on many occasions. He had pretty long hair and a mustache and he smoked pot (not that there's anything wrong with any of that) and was your typical liberal college student.

It would be interesting for someone to go back and republish the editorials he wrote back then. None could be termed as "neocon." He regularly blasted Reagan. It seems like he became editor the year Reagan was running against Carter.

My first impression was an intense dislike of the guy and I don't really know why. He just seemed like a punk from the 'burbs. At least he wasn't a "frat rat" like Shrub. Those are the real pieces of "shinola" on the UT campus. All are State U versions of Yalie Shrub with the same sense of undeserved entitlement. Every year or two someone dies in their hazing rituals, so maybe Limbo is right to a certain extent to compare Abu Ghraib to fraternity hazing rituals.

Exactly!! That's what he's still like.

He's still a punk. More precisely, a smart-ass punk, who thinks he knows everything.

was student body president at UT a few years later. I never did like him much either, but at least he still holds more or less the same views he did as a student.

McKinnon is more just your classic "sell-out" (I would be very shocked if he is now a born-again "fundy" like Shrub; I would bet he is still personally liberal on the social issues) as I'm not sure he believes all the neocon crap, but it is his job to sell it and that's all that matters to him. As he said in the NYT Magazine article by Ron Suskind, he is no longer "reality-based." Everything is spin.

I think McKinnon actually began his political consultancy work representing more Democrats, as would be expected from someone of his background, but around 15 to 20 years ago, that became unprofitable in Texas. He switched sides to gain more business. That would be my guess anyhow.

First time I met Mark he subleased an office in downtown DC... that was about 13 years ago, and there was no mustache or long hair to be found. He had evolved to adult punk from the 'burbs. As I recall, he was working on PR for some non-profits, but had hooked up with Haley Barbour (now Gov of Mississippi), who regularly used to stop by to shake down my boss for PAC money.