Does finding Lou 'Diamond' Dobbs deserve 7,700 words?

When James Glassman wrote in his editor's letter that the American — yet another business magazine — would feature long articles you can comfortably read, he wasn't kidding about the "long" part. The premiere issue features a 7,700-word piece on "The Secret Life of Lou Dobbs."

Putting aside the relative logic of devoting 7,700 words to Dobbs, some highlights:

• Farms in Dobbs' Idaho hometown of Rupert depend on Mexican workers to grow crops.

• Members of Congress say that Dobbs's acerbic positions on his latest fascination, illegal immigration, have become increasingly influential on Capitol Hill.

• Dobbs has said that he has no plans to run for public office, but on account of his new authority, groups like the Reform Party, founded by Ross Perot in 1995, are urging him to become a candidate in 2008.

• Like other teenagers in the area, Dobbs spent summers baling hay.

• Dobbs was certainly no angel. Locals remember the time he sneaked into the Wilson Theater and tossed a live chicken off the balcony during a movie.
  
  

• In the summer of 1963, Dobbs arrived at the Minidoka train station, wearing Acme boots and a Stetson hat.

• Dobbs spent so much time playing cards at law school in Moscow "I was called 'Diamond Dobbs.'"

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