OF all the political bloggers in America, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, creator of the left-wing website the Daily Kos, is perhaps the most powerful. Famous for dishing out criticism, he is now under attack himself, accused of being an election loser who bestows favours on his flatterers.

Like the film-maker Michael Moore, of Fahrenheit 9/11 fame, the prolific and acerbic California blogger thrills his fans but causes moderate Democrats to worry that he could jeopardise the party’s hopes of winning power.

With more than 0.5m hits a day, Moulitsas’s no-holds-barred website has become essential reading for the growing “netroots” army of internet political activists.

Not for him any squeamishness over the fate of the American military contractors who were hung from a bridge in Falluja in 2004. “I feel nothing . . . screw them,” he wrote, despite having served in the army himself for a time.

“He’s the left’s own Kurt Cobain and Che Guevara rolled into one, dripping sex appeal for progressives for whom debate has become synonymous with losing, who need a muscular answer to (Bush’s) cowboy swagger,” observed Ana Marie Cox, a blogger formerly known as Wonkette, in Time magazine.

Moulitsas, 34, was feted only a few weeks ago at the Yearly Kos, his own blogger convention in Las Vegas. It attracted Democratic presidential bigwigs such as Mark Warner, the former governor of Virginia, who lavished more than $50,000 on a party with chocolate fountains, ice sculptures and Elvis impersonators; Wesley Clark, the former Nato general and White House contender; and Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico.

Beau Friedman, Moulitsas’s political ally and publisher, said proudly: “Everybody on the left in politics kisses his ring because he is a kingmaker.”

Hillary Clinton was a notable absentee. Moulitsas has repeatedly trashed the New York senator for backing the war in Iraq and blasted her lack of “authenticity”. On the principle that if you can’t beat them join them, Clinton hired her own blogging guru, Peter Daou, to see off the political threat to her from the left on the net. “So you’ve joined the dark side . . . sigh,” posted a former admirer of Daou’s on his blog.

The greater Moulitsas’s reach, the more enemies he is accumulating. In The New Republic magazine, one writer poked fun at the blogger for joining the establishment and offering support in Las Vegas to the Democratic politicians who flattered him most.

“What does it mean when Markos has a press secretary and gives a speech in a ballroom?” he wondered.

A conservative columnist in The New York Times, David Brooks, went a step further, accusing Moulitsas of cynically backing the politicians who hire his friend, Jerome Armstrong, as a consultant.

Armstrong, 42, is the co-author of their new book, Crashing the Gates, on the netroots phenomenon and a paid adviser to Warner, for whom he runs an internet blog.

Armstrong and Kos also worked for Howard Dean “the scream”, the darling of the left in the 2004 presidential campaign, before their candidate imploded. Last year Armstrong was hired by Sherrod Brown, a Democratic Senate candidate in Ohio favoured by Kos.

“So it is in the realm of the kingpin. Those who offer respect get respected,” Brooks wrote.

Displeasing Moulitsas can be costly. The blogger has thrown his weight behind the campaign to unseat Senator Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, over his support for the war in Iraq. Lieberman is facing a knife-edge primary vote this August to remain the Democrat nominee, which threatens to plunge the party into a civil war.

“It’s the French revolution on the internet,” remarked Walter Shapiro, Washington bureau chief of the online magazine Salon, who believes Moulitsas has a poor record of picking winners. “These people were nothing a few years ago and now they’re being courted. Of course they’re supporting those who suck up to them the most.”

The allegations have infuriated Kos and Armstrong, whose timeline of support for various candidates does not fit quite as neatly into their employment records as some have suggested.

“Any payola allegations or some quid pro quo deal involving Markos and myself are complete fabrications,” Armstrong responded on the web last week. The two bloggers believe it is revenge for their success as opinion-formers, which in the words of a friend “has freaked out a lot of people”.

Moulitsas himself has said little about the controversy, short of rubbishing The New Republic and other critics. In an e-mail to supporters, he suggested: “It would make my life easier if we confine the story . . . let’s starve it of oxygen.”

Such a traditional politicians’ feint has aroused its own share of scorn but, in keeping with his vow of silence, Moulitsas refused to comment on this article. “Nope, sorry, absolutely not,” the motormouth of the web said.

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