Three months into a new technical job, and I'm currently in a situation where I never interviewed my manager; there was a minor re-org and he was brought in after I signed the offer letter. I'll take some of the blame for not having a clear enough head to sniff through that during the interview.

My new teammates, who actually interviewed him, swear they thought he would not be a technical guy, but the guy that will help them with all the non-technical managerial things that you talk about. But this manager *pretends* to be a coder, and has so far produced more bugs than he has fixed. Anti-productivity.

So, this guy is a technical faker, like you described. He does have moxie, and maybe that's what got him hired, however the team thinks his true attribute is pulling the wool over people's eyes; So if he did trick management (and the techniccals) into hiring him, then it's also time to worry about management. Screwage possibility is pretty high. :)

On giving the manager "something to say": Several gave him something to say, but it's not being communicated accurately. Now I'm wondering how close he leans towards evil, or if he's already there. It may be wise to avoid staying around long enough to find out.