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There may be no such thing as bad publicity if you're trying to peddle a product, but if you're a politician trying to win votes and outlast enemies, there is such a thing as bad "blogicity." A few choice posts in the blogosphere can trigger a wave of hostility, and the next thing you know, a powerful sweep of the "long tail" has temporarily knocked you off your political feet.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is the most notable politician bruised by that long tail, but he is not the only one to have found himself squarely in the blog's-eye. Last month, the targets were Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the handful of senators who refused to endorse an apology for lynchings of the past. And this week, the primary target has been Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.

Santorum's alleged sin is two-fold: In a 2002 Catholic Online article, he blamed child sexual abuse by priests on liberalism, and he blamed Boston for that liberalism. The outcry against Santorum first burst into the blogosphere in late June, after Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Baer resurrected Santorum's statement. Then Round II began this week, when The Boston Globe mentioned the issue and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., took to the Senate floor to demand an apology.

Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters, "a Catholic and a conservative" like Santorum, castigated Santorum as being "unfair in the extreme. ... Santorum's remarks attempt to turn the blame away from the criminals and onto the victims. Those remarks were wrong three years ago, and he should have known better than to repeat them now."

Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit warned, "If Rick Santorum wants to run for president, he is going to have to learn to spend a little more time thinking before engaging his mouth." And Michelle Malkin added that to single out Boston "as more of a fertile breeding ground for sexual abuse than the rest of the country is just wrong. And dumb."

Durbin, whose rhetorical misfire about U.S. military abuses prompted one blogger to coin the word "Durbinize," also was back in the sights of Power Line this week. Other recent marks have included Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Sen. Bob Byrd, D-W.Va.

Such blog eruptions happen often enough that I'm going to start tracking them here. So if you want to know the bloggers' latest prey, just look for the "In The Blog's-Eye" kicker, and if I fail to mention someone, please send me an e-mail or post a comment.

Posted by dglover at July 15, 2005 04:59 PM

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Comments

Its Boston. He'll never get a vote out of them anyway...

Posted by: Serfer62 at July 16, 2005 02:10 AM

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