Atrios is probably right.

There probably are bloggers out there who hate the "A-listers" for any or all of these reasons...

1) A-list bloggers have shitty blogs that no one should read but people just read them because they've been around for so long.
2) A-list bloggers are supporting the wrong candidates/causes. They are doing X, but they should be doing Y.
3) A-list bloggers suck up all the attention from better bloggers who everyone should be reading.
4) A-list bloggers end up representing the "netroots" but they shouldn't.
5) A-list bloggers aren't generous enough with their links and should be providing more publicity for other bloggers.
6) A-list bloggers are stupid and they're ugly and nobody likes them.

I don't buy 1-3 at all, myself. If the best writers don't get read, it's because blogging is more than writing. A-list bloggers are typically good writers, but they're often better promoters. I could probably boost the readership here, for instance, if I quit working on Tuesdays, joined the local Kewl Kidz club at Drinking Liberally and strong-armed my way into a podcast or two, or turned some of my posts into Kos diaries, or dropped more comments on other blogs or, well, there are a lot of ways to pump up the numbers. None, in my experience, quite as good as a link from Atrios, but lots.

And everyone's got a right to support anyone, as far as I'm concerned.

4 has a bit more resonance with me, but only because I still view the "netroots" as a mythological beast.

5 is, well, true, but hardly grounds for hate.

6 is what it is.

None of them, of course, have anything to do with the questions surrounding Jerome Armstrong's trouble with the SEC, Kos' relationship with Jerome and Kos' back channel efforts to kill the SEC story. One reason I've never bothered to blog anonymously is that I long ago discovered what Kos is apparently just learning - eventually everybody finds out everything about everyone, and the higher your profile, the faster you're likely to be found out.

Markos and Jerome, whether against their will and intentions or not, are popularly viewed as leaders of us all, even those of us who frequently dissent from their views and activities. That position comes with a burden, and it comes with rewards. Jerome's consultancy is thriving, with a well known, well heeled cilent. Kos makes a better than average living as a full time blogger, part time author.

If Jerome is forestalled from denying guilt under the terms of his SEC settlement, that's still not cause to bury the story, because it's a bigger story than Jerome's settlement by virtue of his high profile as a consultant and Kos' as a blogger. That may not be fair, but it's true.

There are legitimate questions that deserve forthright answers. How much faith we put in those answers will depend not only on what they are, but on how and when they're forthcoming. I'm not in a position to judge anyone at this point, I'm still at the "hmmm" stage. It's silly, though, to pretend that there aren’t legitimate questions, or that Jason Zengerle and his cohorts are some kind of right-wing trolls for raising them.

One thing that I'm kind of surprised that Atrios is so surprised about, though, is that Kos gets " surprisingly little credit for the fact that he's provided a platform which allows literally anyone to reach immense numbers of readers per day in an almost entirely community-run platform. " Heck, so does Blogspot, and I don't have to see their ads next to my words unless I want to.