Mike Allen, Revealed! Okay Not Really.

“Over by the jambalaya, Alan Greenspan picked up some Mardi Gras beads and placed them around the neck of his wife, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who bristled and quickly removed them.” That’s the second most-fascinating moment of this coming Sunday’s New York Times mag cover story on Politico’s Mike Allen. (The disclosure about how the reporter of the piece intimately knows and has worked with everyone involved is the third-most interesting moment, no doubt.) Well, there are probably criticisms to be made of this piece from all sorts of angles-the Times commenters all seem baffled but in different ways, mostly depending on their political orientation. But I couldn’t help but I feel I just hadn’t learned anything about the general from the very specific that is digital-age Mike Allen.

But.

Choire: “Allen sends out Playbook using Microsoft Outlook to a private mailing list of 3,000. A few minutes later, an automatic blast goes out to another 25,000 readers who signed up to receive it. An additional 3,000 or so enter Playbook from Politico.com, which adds up to a rough universe of 30,000 interested drivers, passengers and eavesdroppers to the conversation.”

Choire: I enjoy Mike Allen! And… but… that = a 8000+ word NYT mag cover story??

Balk: He drives the conversation!

Choire: I am waiting for the proof of that!

Balk: The proof of that is an 8000 word NYT mag cover story, no?

Choire: Oh.