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CapitolLink: On The Road With Tom Harkin

Tom Harkin is traveling through his home state of Iowa during the August congressional recess, and the Democratic senator is blogging about his experiences, with the help of his staff.

The blog is the focus of Harkin's Senate Web site, which now consists primarily of a map to chart his travels, a list of events he will hold and blog postings about those events. Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Dashchle, D-S.D., kept a similar "Travels with Tom" blog during his August journeys before he was defeated last November. Allison Dobson, Harkin's communications director, said Harkin writes the material himself from the road, then sends it to staffers who post it online.

Harkin has not had any new content since Tuesday. "We're working out the bugs today," Dobson said. And so far he's not exactly offering profound insights into the top policy issues of the day. His first post from Monday includes photos of Harkin at a Dairy Queen and a for-profit fair trade store called Fair World Gallery, and a Tuesday item touted Harkin School Grants and Harkin Wellness Grants.

But Harkin occassionally includes generic policy-related comments like this: "As I travel the state, I find more and more Iowans worried about the president's proposed changes to Social Security."

The blogging is a first for Harkin, though Dobson said the Web site earlier this year included a one-time interactive feature during the Senate floor debate over the "nuclear option" for filibusters of judicial nominations. People sent more than 1,000 comments to Harkin's office that night, and many of them were posted online.

As for the blog, Dobson said reader feedback is welcome and even encouraged. But comments cannot be posted online because of restrictions that govern content on Senate Web sites. Any comments would have to be screened for content before they were posted, she said, and the office does not have the resources for such screening. "There's certain rules we have to live with in the Senate," Dobson said.

Even so, she said Harkin is enjoying himself. "It's a great way to catalogue what he's been doing every day. ... He's been having a lot of fun."

He might even continue blogging when he gets back to Washington. "We'd like to keep it up as much as we can," Dobson said. But when asked whether a Washington-based blog might be more focused on policy, she said, "Let's get through August and see how we'll do it."

Posted by | 12:31 PM

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