Something I do admire about Taibbi and Moore is that they're willing to pick less popular subjects or take stances that are a bit out of the mainstream, rather than getting boxed in by a sort of Debate Topic Of The Day syndrome.
That's something I'd like to see more of on the liberal side. A lot of people rush to opine about whatever's being debated in Congress, or some underlying tension highighted by a gaffe (Barbour and the Civil War thing), but we could use people banging the drum about stuff like privatized prisons and the Cuba embargo.
edit: and lol andy card, of course