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January 31, 2006Leadership Race: An Interview With Roy Blunt
House Republicans will meet Thursday to elect a new majority leader. Beltway Blogroll requested e-mail interviews with all three candidates in advance of the vote, and Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the current majority whip and frontrunner in the race, was the first to submit his answers.
The interview with Blunt is below. The interviews with the other two candidates, John Boehner of Ohio and John Shadegg of Arizona, will be posted as they are received:
Beltway Blogroll: Washington is embroiled in a lobbying scandal right now. What impact do you expect that to have within Congress and on Republicans in the House in particular? What electoral impact will the scandal have? In other words, would your reign as majority leader be a short one?
Roy Blunt: In 1995 House Republicans took the majority by focusing on reforming the way government does business, and 2005 was no different. We had a banner year legislatively, ranging from securing our borders to extending tax relief. I'm proud of House Republicans' accomplishments. We've led with bold initiatives -- not by reacting to the news of the day. Our successful agenda is built around our core philosophy of limited government that promotes entrepreneurs, encourages job growth, defends the family and secures our country. While I acknowledge that we will have to take steps to regain Americans' trust, this scandal does not define us. The best thing we can do to regain that trust is to finish the work we've begun by staying focused on our agenda.
There is no question that the issue of a few bad actors who did not abide by the laws or any prevailing ethical standard have drawn attention to a situation that requires another look.
BB: Are there too many lobbyists in Washington? Do they have too much influence on Capitol Hill? What lobbying reforms would you advocate as majority leader?
RB: There are some very specific problems that require a tough, but common-sense, approach to reforming the current system. My proposal includes:
-- Applicability of the rules to lobbyists. Apply the congressional gift ban to lobbyists and impose penalties for lobbyists who violate the rules. Right now there are no penalties for lobbyists for breaking the gift rules.
-- Disclosure and transparency. Require more timely disclosure of lobbying expenditures, including all expenditures covered under the gift rules.
-- Expand disclosure requirements. Unlike corporations, tribal employees who lobby Congress are not required to file a lobbying disclosure form. They should be subject to the same rules as corporate lobbyists.
-- Restrict tribal donations. Since most tribes are not incorporated, they may make contributions in federal elections directly from their tribal funds, without establishing a PAC. This facilitates the ability of tribes to make contributions and enables them to make contributions from the income they receive from tribal businesses. Tribes should not be treated differently than corporations.
-- Shadow political organizations. Subject 527s to the same limits as PACs.
-- Private travel. Prohibit privately funded travel for members [of Congress] and staff, or at a minimum require that such travel be pre-approved.
BB: What involvement have you had with the GOP's K Street Project, and what would become of it under a Blunt majority leadership?
RB: I have not been involved with the K Street Project.
BB: On a personal level, were you aware at the time (March 2004) that your former chief of staff and close friend Gregg Hartley secured a position for Jack Abramoff at Hartley's lobbying firm after the initial story came out about Abramoff's bilking of Indian tribes? And now what do you think of Hartley's securing a soft landing for Abramoff?
RB: Gregg Hartley is a close friend, but he does not discuss management of his firm with me, and I don't weigh in on his personnel decisions.
BB: What are your thoughts on some of the "institutional reforms" that have been proposed? Specifically what about the use of conference reports to include/exclude language, late-night votes, and bills going to the floor that have not been viewed by members?
RB: My agenda for institutional reform includes:
-- No new government programs. Adopt a policy prohibiting consideration of legislation creating any new government program with a net cost unless the cost of the program is offset by the elimination or reduction of an existing program.
-- Annual spending reconciliations. Adopt a policy that the House will pursue a spending-reduction reconciliation bill as part of each year's annual budget.
-- Emergency reserve fund. Begin budgeting for emergency spending, such as natural disasters, by including an emergency reserve fund in the annual budget.
-- Sunset review. I am a long-time supporter of Rep. [Kevin] Brady's proposal to eliminate wasteful and duplicative programs through a sunset review commission. It would be my intent to bring that plan to the floor this year.
BB: Given the political importance of spending earmarks to members, how much can you really curb them? And will you deny them (take them out of bills) to the appropriators who put them in?
RB: While we all acknowledge that there have been wasteful and inappropriate earmarks, I continue to believe that directing funds to carry out projects that serve a legitimate public purpose is an important function of representatives in Congress. If funds were not earmarked for a specific project but instead simply allocated to a big government program (under which they are earmarked), they would still be spent -- at the discretion of administration bureaucrats who don't have the same insight into the needs of an area that a member of Congress has.
This practice often results in the same wasteful and inappropriate spending, such as the $700,000 EPA grant that was made without any knowledge of the work the recipient would perform, or the $1 million that was spent by the National Institutes of Mental Health to attempt to discover "what makes a meaningful day."
We must seek to eliminate wasteful spending wherever it occurs. That is why I am proposing that the House consider reforming both the earmark process and the grant-making process. Specifically, on the issue of earmark reform, I propose requiring that for each earmark included in a bill, the following be disclosed:
-- The member requesting the earmark;
-- The name and address of the recipient;
-- And a brief statement explaining how the earmarked funds will be used to carry out the purpose of the program under which the earmark is made.
On government grant reform, the administration should be required to develop and maintain a publicly accessible central database providing the following information:
-- The name and address of the recipient of each government grant;
-- The total amount of grants received by an entity from all government agencies;
-- And a brief statement explaining how the government funds will be used to carry out the purpose of the program under which the grant is made.
BB: What is your view of the recent practice of annual, automatic cost-of-living adjustments for members of Congress? Have you accepted those raises, and if so, why? Would you push legislation to end that practice and to require up-or-down votes on pay raises?
RB: I have supported cost-of-living adjustments for all federal employees, and that does include members of Congress.
BB: What would your legislative priorities be as majority leader in 2006?
RB: We must extend tax relief that has already been enacted and ensure that there are no automatic tax increases on families or entrepreneurs in the future. We must also address rising health and energy costs that threaten our economic progress. Health savings accounts should be expanded through additional incentives; medical malpractice laws must be reformed and health insurance made more portable.
We must also reform the earmark and federal grant-making processes. Specifically, members must be accountable for the requests they make for funding in their districts. Earmarks must be identified with the member who is requesting them, and they must be accompanied by a justification for how the expenditure serves a public purpose. This scrutiny should also be applied to grants made by federal agencies by creating a public database of all those receiving grants along with a thorough explanation of how the grant fulfills the public interest.
I look forward to implementing our aggressive agenda to limit the size of government and grow our economy by putting more control back in the hands of families and entrepreneurs, and by enacting new lobbying reforms, which I've already outlined, and enhancing penalties for those who break the public trust.
BB: What is your view of the controversy over eavesdropping on Americans? As majority leader, would you seek changes in the law to limit such activities?
RB: I agree with the president. This practice should be re-termed a "terrorist surveillance program." I support any actions that are designed to keep Americans safe from terrorists.
BB: Cellular privacy is in the news, with reports that people's calling records can be purchased easily online. What would you advocate as majority leader to address privacy concerns involving that practice?
RB: I hope to take up legislation early in 2006 that protects the privacy of cell-phone users, and ensures that the necessary legal authority and resources are in place to punish those who attempt to sell or otherwise distribute an individual's calling records.
BB: What are your political priorities as a leader of the Republican Party headed into a mid-term election? If elected as majority leader, what three to four specific ideas for increasing the GOP majority would you offer to National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds?
RB: Chairman Reynolds does a great job and certainly doesn't need my advice, but we all do need to work together to help him retain and grow our Republican majority in the House. Because there are significant and legitimate differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to issues like national security, tax and spending policies, and protecting the family, it would be my goal as leader to ensure that we had votes on the floor that highlighted those differences.
BB: What role should moderates play in the Republican Conference? In your service as chief deputy whip and majority whip, describe your work with the moderate and conservative wings of the party on hot-button issues like tax cuts.
RB: Every member is an important part of our Republican Conference, and I'm committed to talking and working with each one. Moderates and conservatives have much more in common than they disagree on when it comes to our agenda.
As whip, I have made it my job to know our members better than anyone else, and have listened and worked with moderates and conservatives alike to identify how we move forward on our agenda and resolve any differences within our conference. The success of our conference in working together was best demonstrated at the end of last year, as we passed both spending and tax reconciliation bills on the strength of Republican votes.
BB: In National Journal magazine this month, I had a piece on the growing influence of blogs within Washington. What is your assessment of their influence?
RB: This leadership race is the first in the age of the blogs, which are one of the best ways for people who are interested in the race on the outside to follow developments. It's exciting to see what pundits and political observers are saying, but it's important to keep in mind that at the end of the day this is a unique election in which only members get to cast a vote for leader. That's why I've focused my time and energy on listening to my fellow members' ideas and sharing my ideas with them about where to lead us.
BB: What blogs do you read regularly? How would you reach out to bloggers as majority leader? Would you start a blog as majority leader? If so, how would you use it? If not, why not?
RB: The blogs are having quite an impact on this leadership race. It has been really interesting to read the rapid coverage and feedback on the race and politics in general.
I already began an open dialogue with the bloggers with my first bloggers' conference call a few days ago. If I'm elected majority leader, I'll continue that regular interaction, as I already do with reporters who cover the Capitol in a weekly pen-and-pad session.
I am working on redesigning my Web site now, so any new site will have a blog component so I can update readers constantly on what is happening on the Hill.
Posted by at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
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By the time President Bush gives his State of the Union address a few hours from now, much of it will be old news thanks to the Internet.
Today has been marked by an abundance of pre-speech blogging, and it will be followed tonight by live-blogging and post-speech blogging. Beltway Blogroll is the place to get your nonpartisan SOTU primer, so here goes:
-- RedState was the first to post excerpts of Bush's speech sent via e-mail by the Republican National Committee. The excerpts touch on terrorism, U.S. competitiveness, energy and health care.
-- The Huffington Post dedicated much of its content today to Bush's forthcoming speech. Arianna Huffington told America what to expect in two posts, one of which she dubbed the "Big Lie Alert." Democratic Reps. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bernie Sanders of Vermont were among the other contributors who posted pre-speech commentary at Huffington's group blog.
-- Pollsters Mark Blumenthal and John Zogby shared their insights.
-- Open Source encouraged its audience to participate in a "Blogs of the Union" event, and Matt Stoller of MyDD was among those who did.
-- Some bloggers, including Pat Cleary of the Manufacturers' Blog, are on Capitol Hill as I write to talk to lawmakers both before and after the event as part of the latest "blog row" hosted by House Republicans. Cleary and his "blogger's apprentice" already have filed feeds based on comments from several lawmakers.
-- Not to be outdone, The Stakeholder, the blog of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will live-blog the speech and post responses from a few House lawmakers afterward. Some of the lawmakers also have agreed to take questions online. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan announced at ConyersBlog that he will participate.
-- Andrew Sullivan and Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters also will live-blog the event. Sullivan will do his duty at CNN during the Anderson Cooper show -- though I'm not sure why considering the show has its own blog. On the left, the meaty editorial offerings planned by Think Progress also include live-blogging.
-- On the other hand, the thought of live-blogging certainly doesn't sound like it would appeal to Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo. He admitted that he can't bear the thought of watching the speech live. "Now, I read the transcript later. I'll often go back and watch key sections so I can get the flavor of a particular passage in the speech or of a debate it has spawned. But the thing itself (watching the actual production in real time) and then the imbecile chatter afterwards -- I just can't deal. I just find it unbearable. Are there others out there like me?"
Posted by at 05:56 PM | Comments (0)
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My piece last week on "A Luxurious Junket For Bloggers" has sparked a debate about blogger ethics, and that's a good thing. Even as they rightly hound journalists, public officials, businessmen and others about ethical breaches, bloggers are loathe to discuss the ethics of their own behavior. They should look inwardly as well.
Yesterday's edition of The Hotline's Blogometer had a good pro-and-con roundup of the commentary in response to my piece, including more thoughts from me. Much of the reaction has been critical, particularly from the bloggers who are taking a government-funded trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in exchange for advertising space and post-trip interviews with officials from the nation's tourism board.
On the other hand, even some readers of those blogs see at least the appearance of a conflict of interest. Here are some snippets pulled from posts or comments at Americablog, Pandagon and TalkLeft:
Twenty years ago, if you were a journalist in an urban area, you got constant offers of these kinds of junkets. Most newspapers eventually made accepting them taboo. The argument that you call them like you see them doesn't mean a lot unless you actually do report something negative. And your readers have no idea what you may be withholding.
It doesn't matter whether it's worth more or less than an ad buy. John [Aravosis of Americablog] would be the first one to get all high and moral if a journalist accepted such a free trip. He'd go on and on about it is bound to affect the journalist's objectivity. This is no different -- everyone here knows exactly what the Dutch want, and the bloggers who go on this trip are going to give it to them.
[L]et's not pretend that any of us do not have a price. That our integrity is not for sale at some point? While I do not believe in bogeymen, nor do I believe in saints. Everyone is corruptible. ... [M]aybe we could do with a bit more self-awareness and a tad less self-righteousness.
You[r] advertiser is paying for a free trip to Europe. Perhaps it doesn't look good.
Plenty of other blogs are talking about the trip, too. Here is a sampling of opinions for Beltway Blogroll readers to peruse:
-- Ace of Spades HQ
-- Centerfield
-- Gridskipper
-- Hammer of Truth
-- Kerfuffles
-- Suburban Guerilla
-- Tapscott's Copy Desk
-- This Space For Rent
-- Thoughts from an Empty Head
-- The Three C's of Convergence
-- Tim Worstall
Posted by at 07:22 AM | Comments (2)
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The netroots of the left are testing the waters of political polling.
MyDD already is raising money for a polling project, and now Daily Kos is looking to hire a programmer who can replicate the 2008 presidential straw poll that the right side of the blogosphere has been running for months.
The MyDD project, inspired by a similar effort at Impeach PAC a few months ago, calls for semi-annual telephone polls, according to blogger Chris Bowers. MyDD is raising money to "commission a comprehensive, nationwide poll that will ask 20 questions that most polling firms, especially those attached to commercial news organizations, seem unable to ask themselves."
The first round of funding, which had netted almost the entire goal of $17,000 as of today, will ask "well-worded questions" on the impeachment of President Bush, the withdrawal of troups from Iraq and the domestic spying program of the Bush administration that has been in the news for several weeks.
The online-based straw poll at Daily Kos, by contrast, will not be scientific. Its goal will be to gauge the changing candidate preferences of blog readers.
"I don't want exactly what the other guys did," said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. "We'll customize for our own needs. But what they've done is a great model. I especially love the ability to have various sites participate in each poll and then track results by site.
UPDATE: MyDD has released the numbers from its polling project in seven installments. A wrap-up post is available at the site, or you can get the details in parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
CLARIFICATION: Bob Fertik of ImpeachPAC e-mailed me to say that AfterDowningStreet, rather than his group, sponsored the polls mentioned as the inspiration for the MyDD project.
Posted by at 07:15 AM | Comments (0)
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Bridging The Beltway Divide
The directors of RedState last week sent a simple, straightforward message about their support for Arizona Republican John Shadegg as House majority leader: "This matters."
Unfortunately for RedState's leaders (and Shadegg), few House Republicans seem to be listening -- and they are the only ones with votes in Thursday's three-way election. Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri is the clear frontrunner in the fight to succeed Tom DeLay of Texas, and John Boehner of Ohio has been running a solid second.
The numbers make perfectly clear that the philosophical rift between grassroots bloggers and the Beltway establishment, evident on the left as well as the right, is as wide as ever. The question now is whether GOP bloggers and the next majority leader can bridge the gap between them after the election.
If Shadegg manages an upset, the task should be relatively easy. He will have won the support of his Republican colleagues, and he entered the contest as the darling of right-leaning bloggers.
RedState endorsed Shadegg even before he was a candidate, and a tally at The Truth Laid Bear shows that he has 100 percent of the few blog endorsements in the contest. Shadegg also won plenty of praise after a Jan. 19 conference call with bloggers.
"He hit all the right notes," Right Wing News proclaimed in giving Shadegg an overall grade of A. And Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters added that electing Shadegg would "send a clear message" that House Republicans are serious about ethics and reform in the wake of party ties to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"Shadegg is the most conservative of the candidates for majority leader and the least connected to the K Street Project and the Washington establishment more generally," said Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution. "This gives him natural appeal with conservative bloggers."
Those bloggers are less enamored with Boehner but appear open to working with him, too. The anonymous RedState blogger Blanton penned "A Kind Word About John Boehner" the day Shadegg joined the race, and James Joyner of Outside the Beltway said after Boehner's conference call with bloggers that the lawmaker "would hardly be a disaster."
When it comes to Blunt, however, a blogosphere-Beltway divide that seems manageable under a Shadegg or Boehner majority leadership suddenly looks more like an impassable chasm that grows more treacherous by the day. Many top GOP bloggers are downright hostile toward Blunt, and some comments by Blunt and his staff have fed their antipathy for him.
The complaints about Blunt were principled at first. Bloggers raised legitimate questions about whether Blunt, with his ties to DeLay and the lobbying community, is the right man to lead a party plagued by scandal. They also noted his role in securing legislative compromises that are anathema to conservatives.
"Electing Blunt GOP majority leader would be a vote for the status quo: big-government conservatism, expanded entitlement spending, runaway deficits and K Street-linked corruption," law professor Stephen Bainbridge wrote.
But the attacks became personal after Blunt held his conference call with bloggers. Blunt's first mistake was imposing tight controls on the call. He took fewer questions than either Boehner or Shadegg, required advance submission of the questions and had the call moderated. In other words, Blunt applied old media thinking to a new, more personal medium.
Perhaps worse, he made an allusion to what might happen after the election. Some participants interpreted Blunt's comments as a warning that he would not work with bloggers if they either opposed his candidacy or criticized him in writing. "After spending a half-hour listening to him... I would rather lick fire ants off a stick than see Roy Blunt as majority leader," Dale Franks said at The QandO Blog.
The "fire ants" quote prompted a retort from one of Blunt's staffers, and that in turn triggered a new round of pointed attacks against Blunt. "It's pretty clear that Roy Blunt's staff and surrogates have a very different manner of engaging the blogosphere than his opponents," Mike Krempasky of RedState complained in an interview.
Blunt spokesman Burson Taylor tried to downplay the controversy. "Congressman Blunt recognizes that bloggers are an opinionated, colorful and spirited group who are an essential part of the democratic process," Taylor said via e-mail. "He is looking forward to working with conservative bloggers in the future to direct their firepower on the Democrats."
The intra-party squabble, however, has sparked some backlash even at RedState.
One House GOP aide bemoaned the willingness of Republicans to undercut the party by focusing on scandal. "It was a debate that the Democrats wanted us to have," the aide said.
Despite the negativity of the campaign, the aide praised the outreach of all three candidates in the majority leader's race. "Good, bad or indifferent," the staffer said, "we're doing exactly what Republicans need to do, and that's open up to the blogging community."
Posted by admin at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
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A Luxurious Junket For Bloggers
Bloggers of all stripes love to bloviate these days about public officials who accepted money or luxurious treatment from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff in his attempt to curry government favor for his clients. But that doesn't mean bloggers are above accepting pampering by people with an agenda.
For the latest evidence, check the list of 25 bloggers who are headed to Amsterdam next month courtesy of Holland.com, the Internet presence of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, and the advertising firm BlogAds. Americablog, Ezra Klein, Outside the Beltway, Pandagon and TalkLeft are among the public-affairs-oriented blogs that will be represented on the weeklong junket.
A disclosure statement at Bloggers in Amsterdam provides the details: free air travel, five nights in a choice of two five-star hotels, and a card that will get them free transportation, free entrance into Amsterdam museums and restaurant discounts. In return, the government of Netherlands gets premium advertising space on the participating blogs for one month, as well as the right to interview the bloggers after the trip and potentially use their comments in online or offline promotions.
Bloggers no doubt will justify the trip by highlighting the transparency of the junket. For one year, they must link to the Bloggers in Amsterdam disclosure statement, which itself notes the transparency "mantra."
But curiously, the bloggers just started talking about the trip yesterday -- and not all of them are doing so yet. If they really wanted to be transparent, why didn't the bloggers tell their readers about the trip when the invitation was extended?
What's more, transparency is not sufficient justification for media outlets -- and that's what blogs want the U.S. government to call them -- to accept favors from an agency with an agenda. Bloggers rightly maligned columnists Armstrong Williams and Doug Bandow for taking money from the Bush administration and Abramoff. Now some of the them are guilty of similar arrangements with the government of Netherlands, and they deserve the same scorn.
No one who makes the trip is compelled to write one word, good or bad, about Amsterdam, and maybe some bloggers will return home and say nasty things about the place. But somehow I doubt they will.
Posted by at 12:45 PM | Comments (17)
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In The Blog's-Eye: The DCCC Deadbeats
Some lefty bloggers of the "netroots" have their differences with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. But when it comes to funding the work of the DCCC, they have no tolerance for House lawmakers who fail to pay their dues to the group.
A Roll Call article that identifies House Democrats who owe money to the DCCC sparked pointed criticism from the top netroots blog, Daily Kos, and sites like ArchPundit and Swing State Project.
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos derided the "deadbeat Dems," especially lawmakers like Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland of Ohio, Ben Cardin of Maryland, and Harold Ford of Tennessee who are seeking higher office in 2006. Moulitsas wondered aloud whether those lawmakers in particular "should be stripped of their committee seats" for shirking their DCCC monetary obligations.
"We need the DCCC to be flush if we want to compete -- and yet House Dems have only contributed one-third of the total they are obligated to pay in," DavidNYC wrote at Swing State Project. "It's rarely my style to go after fellow Dems, but come on, people! We need to be team players on this one." He then listed the delinquents by name.
ArchPundit Larry Handlin focused his ire on one lawmaker in particular: Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois. "Jackson Jr., sitting on a warchest of over $1 million, doesn't seem to think his rather low dues of $150,000 are worth paying," Handlin said. "Now, if Jesse wants to be the guy who is a good Democrat and wants support from the party, shouldn't he support the party? Pay the bill, congressman."
Posted by at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)
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Ezra Klein: Medicare Man
Ezra Klein has a new gig to add to his blogging portfolio: He will spearhead a blog focused on Medicare for TPMCafe.
Joshua Micha Marshall made the announcement at Talking Points Memo. In Marshall's to-the-point style, the blog apparently will be called Medicare Drug Bill Fiasco. Klein mentioned the news in a "Blog Happenings" post that also mentioned that Klein's personal blog has been purchased by L.A. Weekly.
In the near future, the blog will be published at EzraKlein.com and linked as one of the blogs at the newspaper site.
UPDATE: The new Medicare blog is up at TPMCafe. In addition to Klein, the other lead blogger is Kate Steadman, according to a post by Marshall at Talking Points Memo. Three other writers also are set to join the conversation.
"Soon we'll be adding a special comments e-mail address where you can send in your stories, experiences with the program, etc.," Marshall said.
Posted by at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
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The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is all Amped Up on the Internet. That's right, Amped Up is the aptly named blog for NRECA.
I've known the blog was coming for a few months, but I only recently heard that it was online. A link to Amped Up is curiously absent from NRECA's home page. I had been checking the site periodically since mid-November, when I did a profile of NRECA "blog master" Erick Woods-Erickson. A search on the group's site also failed to yield any results for "Amped Up," nor does NRECA appear to have issued a press release about the blog. Is the group ashamed of the product?
In addition to regular posts, the blog points readers to a Take Action Network for contacting lawmakers about issues important to NRECA. It also includes a very un-blog-like "About" page that is chock-full of legalese about copyright law and other matters.
Amped Up has opted for a pre-approval comment policy. "The gist of it is that we are not afraid to have a debate, and we are not afraid to post a comment that disagrees with something on here," Erickson wrote. "Just don't use profanity, and be polite."
Posted by at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
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Mainstream media outlets have been under heavy fire from the left wing of the blogosphere the past couple of weeks, and those bloggers apparently have no intention of calling a cease-fire.
Instead, they have expanded their rhetorical arsenal by creating blogs aimed specifically at attacking The Washington Post, MSNBC's Chris Matthews and NBC's Tim Russert. All three blogs are framed as "open letters" to their subjects.
The Matthews blog is a reaction to the talk-show host's comparison of film director and author Michael Moore with terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The comparison even moved Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to post his first entry in the blogosphere.
The Post and Russert blogs are designed as forums for people to critique the work of "media outlets that don't allow their readers to effectively congregate," Matt Stoller wrote at MyDD. "The Internet opens up remarkable avenues for discourse. Tim Russert doesn't have an 'ombudsman' or a space for discussion, so we built one. The Washington Post does have an ombudsman, but it has been discredited by their actions."
For a recap on the gripes against Matthews and the Post, read yesterday's issue of The Hotline's Blogometer.
Posted by at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
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While only a handful of lawmakers have their own blogs, many more are finding ways to make their presence felt online. One of those ways is to grant interviews to bloggers.
Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., is the latest to take that path. The author of a new book titled Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security and the War on Terror, Hayworth talked with Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters for an hour about immigration and security issues.
"We also talked at length about reform, lobbying, and the upcoming election for the majority leader's office," Morrissey wrote. "[Hayworth] did not endorse any candidate, although he did say that John Shadegg, as his colleague from Arizona, has his attention. He wants to wait to see if the three contenders will agree to a debate, preferably public. Hayworth talked about the public nature of a process that normally would have taken place in quiet caucuses."
Morrissey has posted the interview online as a series of podcasts.
Posted by at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: What Was John Kerry Thinking?
Much has happened in the nearly 450 days since Democrat John Kerry lost his electoral battle against President Bush.
Iraq held elections as insurgents continued killing civilians and U.S. soldiers; terrorists attacked London; one of the worst hurricanes in history slammed into the United States; Bush picked two nominees for the Supreme Court; the Bush administration grudgingly acknowledged a domestic spying program; and the makings of a major congressional scandal emerged.
Through it all, Kerry, a man who wanted to be president and who still holds a seat in the Senate, stayed well clear of the blogosphere. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., started a blog, and several other lawmakers from both parties tested the blogging waters. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., engaged bloggers over campaign finance and did a guest stint at TPMCafe while leading a revolt against the USA PATRIOT Act. But nothing moved Kerry to speak his mind online.
Nothing, that is, until a television talk-show host compared a film director with a terrorist on the run. When MSNBC's Chris Matthews played hardball with Michael Moore by comparing Moore with Osama bin Laden, only then did Kerry feel compelled to join the conversation at Daily Kos.
"There's something that doesn't sit right with me when, on the day Osama bin Laden resurfaced in a disturbing audio tape, cable television ends up in a game of name-calling as a war protester is compared to Osama bin Laden," Kerry began in a post that segued into a disjointed Bush- and media-bashing session.
"Here's a subject suited for true hard ball, on [Matthews'] "Hardball": four years of failure [by the Bush administration] -- enough is enough. Why hasn't Osama bin Laden been captured or killed, and how will he be destroyed before he next appears on tape to spread his disgusting message? That discussion -- rather than criticizing American citizens who exercise their right to free speech and express dissenting opinions -- is the discussion that America needs."
The Daily Kos community celebrated Kerry's presence in their world. The entry generated nearly 1,200 comments, and a follow-up "thank you" post from Kerry had generated nearly 700 more by this evening. "A man who received more votes than any other man in the history of the U.S. (if you actually counted votes accurately in 2004) just posted a diary on our little progressive group blog," one reader commented. "A-Mazing!"
But other bloggers didn't share that view. The conservatives at RedState gleefully linked to and ridiculed the post. "DKos officially jumps the shark," one RedStater chortled. "DKos: bringing together the world's biggest losers," another snickered.
"John Kerry goes to the Daily Kos to defend Michael Moore and claim we let Osama escape," John Cole added at Balloon Juice. "Apparently this was done to give [White House adviser] Karl Rove an easy way to tar and feather Democrats with Moore again this election. Brilliant!"
Kerry's post left more than a few people skeptical that he was indeed the author. So many questioned the authenticity of Kerry's diary, in fact, that Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga had to confirm it -- and even then readers remained suspicious.
The logic of Kerry's post left me doubtful as well. Matthews' comparison of Moore to bin Laden was bizarre in its own right, but for Kerry to try to draw a line from the Matthews/Moore/bin Laden flap to Bush and the media was all the more ludicrous. Kerry's first foray into the blogosphere certainly will be memorable -- but probably not in a flattering way.
Posted by at 07:49 PM | Comments (14)
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The time has come for the U.N. Security Council to brand Iran as a "nuclear pariah." So said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., in his initial appearance at The Huffington Post on Friday.
"Unless the international community acts quickly and decisively," Lantos warned, "the world's chief terrorist state will soon possess the greatest weapon of terror ever created." And he urged the nations that are on the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to take that quick and decisive action at a Feb. 2 emergency meeting.
Lantos dubbed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the nation's "terrorist-in-chief." He said Iran "has flouted every nuclear safeguards agreement and reneged on every commitment it has made" -- even after the IAEA last September found the country in "non-compliance" with its commitment to use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes.
To Lantos, the upcoming IAEA board meeting will be a defining moment for the global community in regard to Iran's nuclear capabilities and intentions. Anything less than a vote to send Iran to the U.N. Security Council, he wrote, "will give fresh hope to the Ayatollahs of Terror that the world will remain tremulous and divided in the face of their threats. We in the Congress will watch carefully who among our friends will stand up and be counted."
Posted by at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
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The Rise Of Blogs
Reprinted with permission of National Journal magazine, as published in the Jan. 21, 2006, edition.
By K. Daniel Glover
When President Bush campaigned for re-election in 2004, he vowed to "save Social Security." Bush touted the notion of voluntary personal retirement accounts in his 2005 State of the Union address, promoted the idea just after the speech, and then, along with top administration officials, barnstormed the nation in a "60 Stops in 60 Days" Social Security tour.
This strategy might have worked brilliantly in another era, when presidents dominated the news from their bully pulpits, and critics -- especially those outside officialdom -- fought for a few paragraphs or minutes of airtime for rebuttal. But in the Information Age, Bush's foes had a powerful new tool known as the Web log at their disposal, and they seized it to great effect.
One blog, There Is No Crisis, focused solely on challenging the president's argument that the Social Security system must be overhauled soon or face dire circumstances. Bob Brigham, a central contributor to the now-defunct site, said that the slogan helped reframe the discussion and embolden congressional Democrats to oppose Bush. Many of them adopted the blog's theme, he said. "By removing the urgency," Brigham continued, "it allowed Democrats to win the debate."
Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo also made opposition to Bush's plans for Social Security a staple of his blog. He berated the Bush administration at every stage of its "Bamboozlepalooza Tour"; he chastised the "Fainthearted Faction" of congressional Democrats who sided with Bush on Social Security; and he lauded the "Conscience Caucus" of Republicans who dared to disagree with Bush.
"We probably heard from most of [the Democrats] that they didn't belong in the Fainthearted Faction," Marshall said. And by the end of April, Marshall had removed more than half of the original 13 from the list because they had come around to his way of thinking.
These days, there is little serious talk in Washington about immediately reforming Social Security, but there is plenty of chatter about blogs -- and with good reason. The technology has taken firm root in the capital. Since summer, bloggers have testified before Congress and the Federal Election Commission; have been invited to Capitol Hill for exclusive interviews with lawmakers and to participate in conference calls with administration officials; and have spurred heated debates on everything from Supreme Court nominees to pork-barrel spending.
Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference co-hosted a handful of like-minded bloggers in Washington during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito. A stream of senators and top officials, including White House adviser Karl Rove, spoke to the group.
Today, far more blogs are focused on Washington than was the case a year ago, when the Social Security debate was at its height. Think tanks and their wonks have them. So do trade associations, watchdog groups, and other special interests. The Family Research Council started a blog this month and will co-host the first annual Blogs4Life event on January 23, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. So far, 30 blogs are set to participate.
Some blogs target specific topics such as counter-terrorism, immigration, education, health care, and the death penalty. Others, such as Dump Mike (www.dumpmike.com), aim to unseat lawmakers (in this case, Rep. Michael Ferguson, R-N.J.).
Only one congressional blog existed before January 2005, but in the year since then, 17 lawmakers, the Republican Study Committee, and Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee have started blogs. Several more members of Congress regularly or occasionally make guest appearances at group blogs such as Marshall's TPMCafe and The Huffington Post on the left, and RedState on the right.
"Blogs are becoming more respectable," said Henry Farrell, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and a blogger at Crooked Timber. Citing the debate over Social Security as an example, he added, "People are beginning to figure out that blogs do have real impact."
Becoming a Force
Blogs have had a noticeable impact on American society since at least 2001. The September 11 attacks that year motivated many people to start online diaries and many more to start reading them. The attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan also sparked the first "warblogs," a trend later fueled by the war in Iraq.
But only recently have blogs become a force within policy-making circles. First, the blogs rose to prominence in the media and then in the political arena.
Bloggers pride themselves on being a check against the mainstream media, or "MSM" in blog shorthand. Their greatest impact came three years ago, when they publicized comments by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi that some interpreted as pro-segregationist. Top media outlets buried Lott's remarks or ignored them altogether. But bloggers criticized Lott's comments so vigorously that public officials and the mainstream media eventually took notice. Lott resigned as majority leader, and last year he told The Christian Science Monitor that he was the "first pelt" of bloggers.
Almost two years later, at the height of the 2004 presidential campaign, bloggers targeted a CBS News report on Bush's National Guard record and provided evidence that the network based the story on phony military memorandums. Although CBS was reluctant to acknowledge the controversy, Dan Rather ultimately resigned as the evening news anchor.
"For a long time," said George Washington University law professor Daniel J. Solove, a blogger at Concurring Opinions, "it seemed that if the mainstream media didn't cover [a story], that was it. ... What we're seeing now is, it's possible for the blogs to put an issue out before the public, and the mainstream media are not the only gatekeeper."
Blogs also soared in popularity as a political tool during the 2004 campaign. The "netroots" of the Left -- bloggers and other grassroots activists who rely on the Internet to advance their causes -- rallied around Howard Dean and unexpectedly pushed him to early front-runner status in the Democratic presidential race. Then, last year, they helped Dean win the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.
The netroots have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrats in some congressional districts, and although none of their favored candidates have won, some of the contests have been far more competitive than expected. In Ohio, Paul Hackett just barely lost an August special election to Republican Jean Schmidt in a heavily GOP congressional district. Hackett is now a Senate candidate and is actively soliciting bloggers' help.
Republican bloggers also proved their political value in 2004. At South Dakota Politics, Jon Lauck and Jason Van Beek were credited with aiding John Thune's victory over Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Thune's campaign reportedly paid both bloggers, and Thune later hired Van Beek as a Senate aide.
By gaining footholds in both the media and politics, the blogosphere quickly built a loyal and important following. One journalist -- now-CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein -- infamously dismissed bloggers as pajama-clad hacks typing away at home, unchecked by any editors. But people who matter read the bloggers' musings.
In a February 2004 study, George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet found that 69 percent of blog readers are "influentials, or opinion leaders and trendsetters with their friends and neighbors." Institute Director Carol Darr said in a recent interview that the news and political junkies who frequent blogs are like "honeybees, kind of feeding the culture" with the information they gather and with their comments and diaries at the sites.
BlogAds, the company that pioneered low-cost, targeted advertising on blogs, confirmed the institute's findings in a 2005 report. Its survey of 30,000-plus blog readers found that many of them write to government officials, attend political rallies, sign petitions, and work actively with groups that try to influence policy. "Clearly, the blogosphere is crawling with certified, grade-A opinion makers," BlogAds founder Henry Copeland wrote in introducing the results.
The commentary on blogs is not always productive, however. Darr said that the technological architecture of blogs allows anonymity and the culture encourages inflammatory speech. Blogs, she added, tend to attract like-minded people -- and ones who are "slightly more ideologically extreme than the general population." The end result: "The Internet is exacerbating political polarization."
Staking a Claim in Washington
With such active readers, it made sense for bloggers to turn their attention to Washington -- and for more people inside the Beltway to awaken both to the influence of bloggers and the potential of blogging technology. That is exactly what happened after the 2004 election.Issues such as Social Security reform drove the interest in blogging and demonstrated the technology's power. George Washington University's Farrell said that blogs were very effective at "creating outrage and creating a groundswell" against Bush's plans for Social Security. Experts -- such as economics professor Brad DeLong of the University of California (Berkeley) and Max Sawicky, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute -- used their blogs to create a "testing bed for interesting arguments," Farrell said.
"We began to see those arguments being taken up by op-ed people ... and change the conventional wisdom in the media" about the Bush plan, Farrell said. Although the blogosphere alone did not push Social Security off the short-term agenda, it was a factor, he contended.
Andrew Roth, the government-affairs director at the conservative Club for Growth and the group's blogger, agreed -- to an extent. He said that Social Security reform is dead in Bush's second term not because of opposition from liberal bloggers but because Republican leaders lack the will to "force moderates to vote on it." Yet he also said that liberal bloggers "were far better organized and ready to fight than conservatives were."
The Club for Growth launched a group blog called Social Security Choice, and Roth expected more like it. "In fact, I was worried that somebody else was going to beat us to the punch. But that never happened, and the other blogs never materialized. I don't know why it didn't happen, but it was frustrating."
The recent vacancies on the Supreme Court have sparked another burst of blogging. The Goldstein and Howe law firm, which specializes in litigation before the high court, launched The Supreme Court Nomination Blog, a sister site to the firm's SCOTUS Blog. Interest groups such as the American Progress Action Fund, the Committee for Justice, and the National Women's Law Center also created court-focused blogs. And the established law blogs, or "blawgs," offered expert analysis of the nominees' legal backgrounds.
One milestone came during the confirmation hearings of Chief Justice John Roberts. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, acknowledged having read blogs the night before and then asked Roberts a question based on a post at The Volokh Conspiracy.
A bigger breakthrough for the blogosphere came with the nomination of Harriet Miers to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The nomination sparked a "blog swarm" against Miers for her purported lack of credentials. The Bush administration hosted its first-ever conference calls with conservative bloggers to try to gain support for Miers, but she eventually withdrew her name from consideration.
At about the same time, Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast region and, in the process, the federal budget. The government's spend, spend, spend response to the storm agitated many bloggers, so they started pushing another idea: Cut the pork-barrel spending from the transportation bill enacted over the summer and redirect the money to hurricane recovery.
Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and N.Z. Bear of The Truth Laid Bear spearheaded the effort, named it PorkBusters, and produced a logo that participating bloggers could put on their Web sites. The bloggers hounded members of Congress for funneling money to projects back home, and they found an ally in Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who forced floor votes on pork-barrel spending last fall. Coburn now has a PorkBusters page, and the logo, on his congressional Web site.
"I don't want to engage in blog triumphalism," Reynolds said in an e-mail interview, "but [the PorkBusters campaign] seems to have done some good. They seem embarrassed about pork rather than proud of it, which is progress." Reynolds said that blogs could change Washington attitudes about pork. "Most people in a congressional district don't benefit from pork in that district. The whole approach depends on the beneficiaries being grateful while everyone else is oblivious. Blogs, and the transparency they create, call that approach into question, at least so long as some people care. At the moment, a lot of people do."
Those people include House Republicans, according to Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas. Conservative bloggers chastised DeLay for arguing in September that the budget had no more wasteful spending to cut. Madden, a regular reader of Instapundit, Power Line, RedState, and other right-leaning blogs, said the entire GOP Conference got the message. Bloggers did "a very good job at focusing the conference on spending and taxes," Madden said.
Bloggers across the political spectrum did an equally good job of focusing both Congress and the Federal Election Commission on an issue of self-interest to them: the application of campaign finance law to blogs. When former Commissioner Brad Smith warned of that possibility last March, bloggers quickly formed the Online Coalition to lobby against blog regulation and flooded the FEC with comments. Leading bloggers later testified before both the agency and a House committee as they sought exemptions from campaign finance law.
Amid the months-long debate, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., posted commentary on the issue at a couple of blogs and engaged readers of those blogs in debate. The FEC chairman and a member of the commission wrote blog entries at RedState. In November, the FEC granted certain political blogs a media exemption from campaign finance law.
"Never before have we seen so many people engaged" about campaign finance, said RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky, who testified before the FEC and Congress. "All of a sudden, once bloggers started covering this, it became an issue people cared about."
If You Can't Beat 'Em, Blog With 'Em
Bloggers have not had that kind of success on every issue. Their outcry against creditor-friendly bankruptcy legislation, for instance, fell flat twice last year -- once before Congress cleared the legislation in the spring and then again before Congress implemented it in the fall. Michael Cornfield, a senior research consultant for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, said that blogs are "only as powerful as decision makers allow them to be. ... If they ignore [an issue], there's really nothing that a constant buzzing and commentary can do to you."
But many decision makers are not ignoring blogs. Instead, they are working hard to woo bloggers and to learn how to best use the technology for their own purposes. At the start of 2005, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., opened a communications center aimed at outreach to the online community, including bloggers. And earlier this month, he agreed to speak at YearlyKos, a gathering of people in the online community built around Daily Kos, the most popular blog on the left. The convention is scheduled for June in Las Vegas.
In 2005, House and Senate Republicans invited bloggers to Capitol Hill so they could grill lawmakers about their pet issues. The House Republican Conference has tentatively scheduled a similar "radio and blog row" for late January to start the second session of the 109th Congress.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has continued the conference calls it started during the controversy over the Miers nomination. "They are a new form of media," RNC E-Campaign Director and blogger Patrick Ruffini said of blogs and why the RNC is interested in them. "They're gaining prominence. ... There is explosive growth, and we only expect that to continue."
Most of the major party political organizations -- the RNC, the DNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- have blogs and pursue relationships with key bloggers. The campaign committees also monitor blogs. NRSC Communications Director Brian Nick said that his group has an internal roundup of blogs called "The Blog Chaser" that is updated at least daily. "It is vital to give information to, and get information from, them," he said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is the only campaign committee that mostly ignores blogs, and Communications Director Carl Forti said it has no plans to change that. "A lot of times," he said, "you just don't know how reliable the information on these things is. ... Ninety percent of the time, we know more than they do."
Such skepticism may explain why only a few lawmakers have tried blogging, but the concept is gaining favor even with them. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., was one of the first lawmakers to start blogging, and he explained why in an October entry at ConyersBlog.us. "The MSM simply will not report on the actions of a party that lacks the White House or majority control of either house of Congress," he wrote. "Indeed, the same reporters who write that Democrats lack an agenda refuse to write about our legislative proposals no matter the number of press conferences, calls, and press releases. Blogging lets me bypass that filter and take my message directly to many voters."
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., launched SchaBLOGsky in October for another reason: to motivate Democratic activists on behalf of candidates. "I think this whole medium has proven to be something not just for people who sit at a computer but who want to get involved," she said.
GOP Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia discovered another benefit of blogging after his recent foray into that world. While he has his own blog on his congressional site, he also posts entries at RedState to gain exposure to its much larger audience. When Kingston recently introduced an energy bill, he broke the news on RedState first and had 40 to 50 responses, including advice on how to change the legislation, within two hours. Although Kingston said he would not necessarily alter the bill based on blog comments, "we would be at least aware of it and sensitive to it."
Freshman Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said it took some persistent lobbying by one staffer before he took the plunge. "You'll see more and more members who will start these and take advantage of them," he predicted.
Trade groups and other advocacy organizations are also venturing into the blogosphere, with the National Association of Manufacturers and the Nuclear Energy Institute leading the pack. NAM "blogger-in-chief" Pat Cleary has been a blog evangelist within his industry and to lobbyists in Washington. He was one of the speakers at a summer event dubbed "Blogging 101 for K Street." Issue Dynamics, a public-affairs and Internet consulting firm that opened a "blogger relations" unit, co-hosted the event. "It's smart. It's free publicity," Cleary said of blogging by trade groups. "Why not do it?"
He noted, for instance, a new feature attached to some articles at washingtonpost.com: links generated automatically via the blog search engine Technorati. The newspaper's ombudsman said recently that some reporters hate the feature, but Cleary loves it because NAM can get its unfiltered views embedded within a well-read and respected media site."In real time ... we'll see the link to our blog in that story," he said. And although Cleary acknowledged that readers might not click on the link to read his commentary, he said, "My odds are as good as [publishing] a letter to the editor ... and The Post is doing it for me."
Eric McErlain, a speechwriter for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said that his group's blog has become a "tactical component" to counter misleading media "spin." He cited a Time magazine story on security at nuclear power plants and a similar ABC News investigation dubbed "Loose Nukes," both of which ran last summer, as examples. Both reports prompted heavy blogging, not just by NEI but also by the community of like-minded allies who frequent the NEI blog. "They're carrying our water without being told," McErlain said. He added that other trade groups would do well to start blogging. "There's a conversation that's going on about your industry. And the question is whether you want to be involved."
Blogs can also serve as portals to keep activists informed about their favorite topics. That's the goal of the three blogs created last year by the human-rights group Amnesty International. The blogs focus on violence against women, the death penalty, and torture -- a hot topic in Congress last year as lawmakers debated where to draw lines in the war on terrorism.
Kevin Reid, Amnesty International's director of Internet communications, said blogs offer a new way "to build communities of interest" now that e-mail newsletters are being opened less frequently. The group first used blogging as an organizing tool for its National Week of Student Action in the spring, with the focus being the anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act. "It allowed us to bring in additional information ... to keep everyone up to date," Reid said.
Blog or Perish
Amnesty International has taken its message on torture into the blogosphere by advertising there. Its ads, which ran on 12 to 15 of the bigger political blogs, including Americablog, Andrew Sullivan, and Talking Points Memo, invited readers to "tell the Bush administration that you find torture reprehensible."
"The response has been good enough that we plan on continuing to do them," Reid said of the group's advocacy ads on blogs.
Other organizations apparently share that view. BlogAds founder Copeland said that business has been booming because political campaigns, interest groups, and others are beginning to understand the market. "I think we're going to see a lot more D.C.-to-D.C. advertising in '06," Copeland said. "People sat up and took notice when they heard Senator Cornyn, a 50-something Republican from Texas who is not your stereotypical hipster geek, begin his questioning of John Roberts by saying that Cornyn had stayed up the night before reading the blogs to see what they were saying about him. Then Cornyn proceeded to ask Roberts a question that a blogger had [raised]."
Defenders of Wildlife used blog ads to promote PomboInTheirPocket, a Web site that tries to link Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to land developers, oil companies, and lobbyists who want to amend the Endangered Species Act. The two-week ad buy ran mostly on California blogs, said Mark Longabaugh, the consultant who helped the group put it together. It included three "action items": telling a friend about the site, e-mailing Pombo's office, and making a contribution.
The ad raised about $50,000, Longabaugh said. "That would have more than covered the ad buy." He added that it generated thousands of impressions more than Defenders of Wildlife could have expected from a television or newspaper ad -- and it reached the right people. "The blogs tend to be where a lot of conversation is going on these days in terms of politics," he said.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America was equally pleased with its blog ads to enhance awareness of the group's BuySafeDrugs site. The ads were placed periodically on an array of blogs, generally for about a month at a time, according to Ken Johnson, PhRMA's senior vice president of communications. "It's an effective, cost-efficient way to reach select, targeted demographics," he said. It also gives drugmakers direct access to patients without their message being filtered by the media. PhRMA plans to develop more ads this month focused on topical news events, Johnson said. And the group plans to have a blog of its own at some point. "We're trying to make it where it's not a dartboard," he said. "It's one thing to hear what other people have to say. It's another to put a bull's-eye on your forehead."
Although NAM's Cleary said that most trade groups remain cautious about starting their own blogs, he expects more of them to do so as they begin to understand the technology and not to fear it. But if some of them don't embrace the technology, that is fine with him. "To the extent that people disagree with us," he said, "I hope they stay on the sidelines. For people who agree with us, I hope they jump in."
As for folks on Capitol Hill, DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said that the time to start blogging is now. "Anybody who hesitates does so at their own peril."
Posted by at 10:00 AM | Comments (5)
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Reprinted with permission of National Journal magazine, as published in the Jan. 21, 2006, edition.
By K. Daniel Glover
Politicians are rarely on the cutting edge of technology, and that is as true with blogs as it has been with Web sites, e-mail newsletters, and other recent online innovations. Three years after blogs helped force Mississippi Republican Trent Lott out of the Senate majority leader's office, fewer than 1 percent of his colleagues in Congress have created blogs.
But last year may have been a turning point. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were among the 17 lawmakers who created blogs in 2005.
"It seems like every time I go online, or get an e-mail, or read a story," said Nicole Folk, the technology analyst for the Congressional Management Foundation, "there's another [congressional blog].... It's spreading, and it's definitely becoming more of an option than a couple of years ago."
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is easily the most prolific blogger in Congress. He started ConyersBlog in February at his campaign site, a move that freed the online journal from some restrictions governing congressional Web sites. Conyers writes the content himself and regularly "cross-posts" at other blogs, including Daily Kos and The Huffington Post.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has had a blog longer than any other lawmaker, since October 2003. He is also the only lawmaker with two blogs on his congressional site: More from the Floor, which recaps Senate floor action, and Heard at the Hearing, a topical blog focused on Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Leahy's staff writes the content for his blogs, which is a fairly common practice. Other lawmakers give aides the task of maintaining their blogs, but also contribute some copy themselves.
Although blogging has soared in popularity because of its use of feedback and other interactive features, few lawmakers enable those features. Those who do, including Conyers and Frist, have received hundreds to thousands of comments on some entries.
Folk said that one obstacle to congressional blogging is the amount of time required of lawmakers or their aides to do the job right. "Their budget and staffing levels have remained relatively stationary for a very long time," she said, "yet their incoming communications have increased four times."
Lawmakers who want to blog but who cannot dedicate enough time or staff to the task have tried two other options: temporary blogs that focus on the lawmakers' travels, and guest posts at group blogs. The latter practice is "a great way to get involved and get a feel for the blogs," Folk said, and it "really shows the power of the blog."
Posted by at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
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The Jan. 21 issue of National Journal magazine features a package on the policy and political impact of blogs by yours truly. I will be reprinting the main story and the sidebar here at Beltway Blogroll shortly, but I thought my readers might like to see some of the raw material used to craft the story.
To that end, I have posted in alphabetical order a series of e-mail interviews that I conducted for the story. I talked to many more people, but most of my reporting was by telephone, without a recording device. That's why there are only four interviews -- but all of them are chock-full of great insights, as you'll see for yourself if you're inclined to read.
Here are links to the interviews:
-- Henry Copeland of BlogAds
-- Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post
-- Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit
-- Andy Roth of The Club For Growth
Posted by at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
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Beltway Blogroll: Tell me about the market for advocacy ads on blogs and how it has grown since you started the company.
Henry Copeland: We opened for business in August 2002, and I thought we'd have an instant boom. Doesn't every blogger want to make money? Doesn't every advertiser see how dynamic and influential the blogs are? Well, no. So we had total sales in '02 of probably $500. This was quite a disappointment since we'd put 2,000 man-hours into developing the idea and our share of sales was only $100. Worse, 2003 was almost as slow. In retrospect, all the t-shirt sales -- pro or anti-Bush, pro-second-Amendment or pro-choice -- should have shown me that we did have a core audience of passionate partisans, but selling $30 worth of ads day after day was disheartening.
In June of 2003, the ACLU of Pennsylvania bought what I recall as the first advocacy ad on Atrios, who was the first "big" political blogger to join BlogAds. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw a $900 payment come through for a one-year ad. I thought, "Maybe we do have a business here after all." Wow, what a deal he got because today obviously $900 would buy you just a week or two on Atrios. (I should note, too, that Atrios' traffic has grown 50-fold.)
The next advocacy ad I recall was Oceana.org, which bought a couple ads in the fall of '03. When I was next in D.C., I visited Matt Littlejohn at Oceana to thank him for his business and ask how the ads had done. He said, "Well, the guy we hired to run online advocacy came through the blogads." That was another hint that we had a business. The next eye-opener was when Mark Nickolas bought ads for [now-Rep. Ben] Chandler's Kentucky special election and got a 40-fold return on the buy. Bit by bit, these data points have accumulated, to the point we think we do have a business.
BB: You mentioned earlier this year that you expected a real explosion in such ads come September. Did that happen? Why or why not?
HC: Yes, September, October and November were strong. The big surpise was the volume of local stuff we did -- for example on California blogs. Issue 77, "nix the first six," Proposition 79, PombointheirPocket.org -- you name it, we ran the ads.
BB: How would you describe the typical buyer of such ads? Corporation? Trade/interest group? Campaign? PAC?
HC: The data set is still too noisy to say "typical." At the end of quarters and in the quarter before an Election Day, campaigns are a major buyer. At a steadier pace, we've got the issues-focused buyers: BSA, Amnesty International, Pro-Alito, NARAL, the U.N. Foundation, Keep the Ten Commandments, anti-Wal-Mart, anti-drug importation, you name it. Blogads are a ticker tape of the political zeitgeist. Here is a smart example of this type of a blog ad and landing page.
Most of the current ad flow is what you might call B2C, which is to say retail politics. I think we're going to see a lot more D.C.-to-D.C. advertising in '06. People sat up and took notice when they heard Senator [John] Cornyn, a 50-something Republican from Texas who is not your stereotypical hipster geek, begin his questioning of [now-Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts by saying that Cornyn had stayed up the night before reading the blogs to see what they were saying about him. Then Cornyn proceeded to ask Roberts a question that a blogger had mooted.
The blogs' combination of undiluted minutia, unvarnished opinion, name-naming and tomorrow's-news-today are a magnet, not only for voters but insiders. So some D.C. player will buy the top slot on Political Wire or TalkLeft or Right Wing News for $100,000 for all of '06, and a couple of years from now, that deal will look as cheap in retrospect as the $900-for-a-year order on Atrios in '03.
BB: What is the typical ad buy? How many blogs? What price?
HC: In politics, the lower end is $1,000 on 1-10 blogs, and the top is $30,000 on 200 blogs, with the median being $8000 on 50-100 blogs.
BB: Which blogs are the most popular among advertisers, and why?
HC: Well, we've beer drinkers, wine drinkers, Coke drinkers and Perrier drinkers, and a few folks who like champagne. But the big-name political blogs are the easiest thing to buy because these are the ones that everyone knows. The client can name-drop at a dinner party and everyone will know what she's talking about. "Wow, you bought Kos, Hewitt, TPM and Power Line -- what a tantalizing mix." But some of the best values are in the small, narrow-focus blogs, where you can hit exactly your audience and get more attention.
BB: How is the blog market different than print, TV or even the Web in general? Who are advertisers likely to reach, and why do they want to reach them?
HC: Great question, one we're constantly thinking about. The first thing is the concentration of the audience. This is 200-proof, pure-fermented politics. Political blog readers aren't casual browsers who happened to stumble through on their way to the sports pages. The second distinction: Versus TV and print, these are interactive audiences; readers can click or they can send an e-mail or they can post a comment.
Most importantly, blogs are nodes in fast-transmitting social networks. Twenty percent of blog readers are themselves bloggers, so messages ripple further and faster in these communities than in other online audiences. Finally, there's an overlooked offline component to the blogosphere. Blog readers are, 90 percent of the time, knowledge workers on broadband connections. They are at work in a physical social network. And so, in contrast to TV and newspapers, which are consumed in a vacuum, blog readers are far more likely to shout out to the person in the next cubicle, or gab about something at the water cooler, or blast an e-mail to 50 friends and colleagues.
All of which means that the most successful blogads are a notch more social and engaging than the ads you'd put in print. The ads may link to some piece of viral video or contain multiple links to blogger comments, white papers, action pages. The creative may change a couple of times a week to keep the audience clicking. The creative may change to react to blogger comments on the original message.
A final caveat: There are no free lunches. Because these are "influentials," in the classic Roper sense, you have to remember that these folks are more demanding, pickier and less likely to just buy what you put in front of them.
BB: What kind of return on investment can advocacy advertisers expect from blogs?
HC: There's no single measure of ROI. The easiest to quantify are money or petition signatures. Depending on your ad and audience choice, you can strongly outperform other online media and make a multiple on your investment, or you can at least equal the other media and/or break even on the buy. Some buyers just want to know they've made physical contact with 2,000 visitors or that their ad has been seen by 200,000 people who might care about an issue. Some just want to plant a seed of an idea in the heads of 10 insiders. Some folks measure success in terms of a single call from a
congressional staffer saying, "Hey, I saw your ad on Althouse or Politics1."
Posted by at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)
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Beltway Blogroll: Tell me briefly about the goals of The Huffington Post and how they have changed since it started.
Arianna Huffington: Ever since college, I've always enjoyed bringing together people from many different parts of my life and facilitating interesting conversations. These conversations have taken place around dinner tables, or at book parties, or on hikes with disparate groups of friends. With The Huffington Post, the idea was to take those conversations -- about politics and books and art and music and food and sex -- and bring them into cyberspace, creating a one-stop shopping site for news and opinion, with an attitude, in real time.
For me, the site's defining moment took place in July, just two months after we launched, when the bombing happened in London. Several of our top bloggers like Simon Jenkins, the former editor of the Sunday Times, were blogging about what was happening. I remember having my morning coffee and reading my copy of The New York Times, which had a front-page article on London winning its bid to host the Olympics. It was one of those moments that showed us what we could accomplish because with daily newspapers, you have the sense that you're reading yesterday’s news.
BB: Who in Washington reads the blog? Lawmakers and other policymakers? Lobbyists? Journalists? Other opinion leaders? What kind of feedback do you get from them?
AH: Judging by the feedback we're getting, which ranges from requests to blog to news tips for us to use on the site, it's read widely by all these groups.
BB: You have had some success in getting lawmakers to post occasional entries. Why do they do so? Do you recruit them to post, or do they approach you? Have you approached lawmakers who are not interested? If so, why do you think they resist? And why do you think more lawmakers in general aren't blogging?
AH: It's a long list, actually (see below) and we're adding new contributors every day. I'm told by many of our busy bloggers that they often have a strong take on the news but don't always have the time to put together a New York Times op-ed or put on makeup and drive to the CNN studio but, with us, they can dash out their thoughts in the more informal, conversational style of blogging. They can blog a thought they have, a reaction to something that is happening. And the beauty of blogging is that your post doesn't have to have a beginning, a middle and an end. You put a thought out there. Others respond. You start a conversation, and you can get on with the rest of your life.
Another attraction is the exposure our site provides. Many in the media, as well as many opinion makers, lawmakers and their staff, have our site bookmarked. And our partnership with Yahoo News means that every day 10 of our blogs get in front of millions more eyeballs.
Here is a list alphabetically of who has blogged so far:
Sen. Evan Bayh
Rep. John Conyers
Gov. Jon Corzine
Sen. Russ Feingold
Rep. Barney Frank
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Sen. Edward Kennedy
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Ed Markey
Rep. Jim McDermott
Rep. George Miller
Rep. John Murtha
Rep. Major Owens
Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Rep. Ted Poe
Rep. Charles Rangel
Rep. Bernie Sanders
Rep. Jan Schakowsky
Rep. Louise Slaughter
Rep. Hilda Solis
Rep. Ellen Tauscher
Rep. John Tierney
Rep. Diane Watson
Rep. Henry Waxman
[Editor's note: All but two on the list, Texas Republican Poe and Vermont indepenent Sanders, are Democrats, and Sanders caucuses with House Democrats.]
BB: On the policy front, how has the blog helped shape the debate over certain issues? Please provide some specific examples of success or failure, if you can think of them.
AH: Blogging has a kind of relentlessness that was never available to me as a columnist. When I started blogging in July about Judy Miller and The New York Times -- I haven't counted how many blogs I've posted -- it was something I never could have done as a columnist. My editors would have said, "Oh, you are writing about Judy Miller and The New York Times again? You wrote about her last month."
You have many stories that die on the front page of The New York Times. Big stories are covered but then forgotten. There isn't enough follow-up, and the greatness of the blogosphere is that there is a lot of follow-up. A story is covered and re-covered and re-covered until you break through the static of our 500-channel universe. And that is how you can actually begin to bring about change and capture the public's imagination.
While the mainstream media suffers from attention deficit disorder -- they cover a story and they move on -- bloggers stay with the story. That's one great service we provide.
The only reason we were able to take the lead on some very important stories like Judy Miller and Bob Woodward [of The Washington Post] was that we were there early and stayed on them and linked to other stories and to other blogs, and they linked to us, and we linked back to them.
For example, I first wrote about Bob Woodward on Nov. 16 but then did a more thorough take on the story on Nov. 28. Then Nora Ephron wrote a blog on him that gained a tremendous amount of traction, including being mentioned in Frank Rich's column and being central to Jay Rosen's summing up on the story. Her previous post on Mark Felt was also picked up everywhere, from the AP to Kausfiles. The same thing happened when Norman Mailer blogged about the Koran getting flushed down the toilet. And Lawrence O'Donnell broke the story that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source [for Time magazine] in a posting on our site in early July.
BB: In general, tell me what you think of the ability of the blogosphere to influence public policy. How powerful are blogs in policy circles these days, and why? What do you expect of them in that sense for the future?
AH: I wrote about the power of bloggers as far back as 2002, when I praised Glenn Reynolds for the amazing job he did by bringing to the public's attention Trent Lott's comments at that famous birthday lunch [for Strom Thurmond]. They were ignored by the mainstream media until Glenn wrote about it, then others like Josh Marshall, Andrew Sullivan and Mickey Kaus developed the story, eventually succeeding in moving it out of the shadows into the political spotlight. So that was really the first moment when we saw the power of the blogosphere. and it's only been growing since.
And it's brought more accountability to the mainstream media. Dan Rather, Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Viveca Novak, the disastrous pre-war media coverage on [weapons of mass destruction] -- all of these stories would not have gotten the traction they did without the blogosphere.
BB: As blogs gain influence, will policymakers try to co-opt the technology to achieve their goals?
AH: Perhaps, but there is something really authentic about blogging. It's very transparent, and you can't fake it.
BB: Some people have said blogs contribute to political divisiveness in America. Do you agree? Why or why not?
AH: I believe the exact opposite. Blogging pulls people together. I truly love the intimacy of the medium. You're much more intimate when you're writing a blog than when you're writing a column, let alone a book. The conversational nature of it. The fact that you draw people in. You don't just write about politics. You write about yourself. You write about things you care about beyond politics.
I just finished reading the type script of Glenn Reynolds' "An Army of Davids: How Markets & Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths." We're supposed to be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but I agreed with so much in the book, especially about the power that blogging and the new technology have given to the individual to take on big media, big government and the status quo.
Posted by at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
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Beltway Blogroll: How has the PorkBusters campaign influenced attitudes about federal spending and pork in particular?
Glenn Reynolds: I don't want to engage in blog triumphalism, but it seems to have done some good. They seem embarrassed about pork rather than proud of it, which is progress!
BB: Can you point to some specific instances where policymakers seem to be getting the message? Where they seem to be ignoring it or even spurning it?
GR: The Alaska "bridge to nowhere" is a case of them folding under pressure, I think. For more examples, search the words "pork response" on my blog. Most members of Congress are still just hunkering down, hoping that if they ignore it it will go away.
BB: How significant is it for the blogosphere that Sen. Tom Coburn seems to have made the cause his own?
GR: I think it's pretty significant. He's even got the PorkBusters logo on his Web site. Obviously, having a champion in the Senate is a very good thing.
BB: Do bloggers have the ability to ultimately foster a sea change in government on an issue like pork-barrel spending, which only grows more popular every year, regardless of which party is in power?
GR: Yes. Politicians do what they can get away with, and they've been able to get away with pork. If people start paying attention, that will change. Most people in a congressional district don't benefit from pork in that district. The whole approach depends on the beneficiaries being grateful while everyone else is oblivious. Blogs, and the transparency they create, call that approach into question, at least so long as some people care. At the moment, a lot of people do.
BB: What obstacles exist to individualistic bloggers rallying around similar causes and having an impact in Washington?
GR: Well, you can only sustain so many campaigns at a time, and people get tired in the blogosphere just as everywhere else. (Note the tremendous charitable response to blog efforts to raise money for victims of the tsunami and [Hurricane] Katrina, but the falloff after that.) And the issue has to be one that can assemble a critical mass. Blogs and the blogosphere are just a part of the whole constellation, of course, but they're a new part, and they seem able to focus on issues quickly, and in ways other media and institutions haven't done.
Posted by at 07:22 AM | Comments (0)
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Beltway Blogroll: How did The Club For Growth's Social Security Choice blog impact the Social Security debate?
Andy Roth: The SSC blog helps complement the club's overall strategy of trying to enact pro-growth personal accounts as part of Social Security reform. This was especially important when [Sen.] Lindsey Graham suggested that we raise the wage cap as a way of making the program solvent. Not only did we blog against that idea extensively, but we also used the blog to showcase the TV ad [that] we ran in South Carolina letting people know what a horrendous idea it was. Plus, we used it mostly as an aggregator. We used the SSC blog as a "one-stop shop" for people to learn more about the Social Security debate. We constantly linked to other blogs, news articles, and think tank reports, while at the same time, providing expert commentary from people like Larry Kudlow, Brian Wesbury and Herman Cain. It's a fun project."
BB: Do blogging opponents of Social Security, as Reed Hundt argued here, deserve credit for exposing "every distortion, misrepresentation, confusion, and unanswered question embedded in the White House campaign against defined benefits for retirees"? Is the move for Social Security reform dead in Bush's second term in part or in whole as a result of critical coverage by bloggers like Josh Marshall?
AR: Social Security reform isn't dead in Bush's second term because of liberal bloggers. It is dead because the Republican leadership, both in Congress and in the White House, was and is unwilling to force moderates to vote on it. However, looking back on the past year, liberal bloggers were far better organized and ready to fight than conservatives were. When we launched the SSC blog in late January, I was expecting several other similar blogs to pop up as well. In fact, I was worried that somebody else was going to beat us to the punch. But that never happened and the other blogs never materialized. I don't know why it didn't happen, but it was frustrating.
BB: What are your thoughts more broadly on the impact of blogs in Washington? Why is The Club for Growth blogging?
AR: The Club for Growth blog exists because we deal in information. Members of the club strongly believe in the economic freedom that comes with limited government and lower taxes. Each day is a new battle to beat back the forces of big government and in order to fight the good fight, you have to constantly disseminate information to your supporters and to the public. And nothing achieves that task better, and more cost effectively, than a blog.
BB: Why aren't more trade groups, think tanks, etc., doing so?
AR: It troubles me that not all fiscally conservative think tanks have a blog yet. A few do, like National Taxpayers Union and The Tax Foundation, and they are doing a great job. But what about the others? The whole reason why these organizations exist is to inform people of the virtues of economic freedom. The Internet is the single-best way of achieving that goal. And by extension, the blogosphere is ideally suited to virally spread the word. To me, it's not only a no-brainer; it's a requirement to running an effective organization.
BB: Can you point to specific examples of where bloggers have demonstrated their policy and/or political influence in the past year?
AR: Senator Tom Coburn deserves an enormous amount of credit for starting a debate about egregious spending when he proposed the defunding of the "bridge to nowhere" [in Alaska]. But it was the blogs that keep that debate alive. We made it part of a larger issue and wrote about it extensively. Eventually, the politicians buckled under pressure and defunded it (but, of course, not in the true manner that we had hoped).
BB: Where might their influence be felt in the next year or so?
AR: Next year, the blogosphere is going to redefine politics -- again. Last year, it was rare when a "race blog" would pop up like the Toomey Blog or the Daschle v. Thune blog. This year, at the very least, every competitive race in the 2006 mid-term elections will have one. And the really good campaigns will have them as well.
Posted by at 07:03 AM | Comments (0)
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Blunt, Boehner, Shadegg: Calling All Bloggers
The center-right bloggers who last week penned an appeal about the three-way race for House majority leader took their interest in the battle to the next level today. They organized a series of conference calls with each of the candidates.
The calls with Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boehner of Ohio and John Shadegg of Arizona followed a series of radio interviews with each of the candidates over the previous three days. Talk-show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt conducted those interviews, and Radio Blogger posted the transcripts.
Kevin Aylward of Wizbang, one of the participants in all three blogger conference calls, published a list of bloggers who joined each call, as well as audio links to the call and links to Wall Street Journal articles that each of the candidates published this week.
"I have to say, I think this has probably been the most open leadership contest in history," Glenn Reynolds concluded at Instapundit.
Posted by at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)
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Bush administration officials are about to embark on a national speaking tour to publicize the advantages of the prescription-drug benefit now available to Medicare recipients, and blogger Josh Marshall hopes to be there virtually on every leg of the tour.
Last year, Marshall used his Talking Points Memo to critique administration officials as they touted Social Security reform at various events. He dubbed that PR campaign the "Bamboozlepalooza Tour."
Marshall resurrected the bamboozlepalooza theme this week as word broke of a Medicare-related PR campaign. But this time, he is looking to create a separate blog just for that issue, and he is recruiting a blogger or two to do the work. "The person who does this doesn't have to have fancy credentials or a bunch of initials after their name -- just a real-world grasp of the nuts and bolts of how this stuff works," Marshall wrote.
The model for the Medicare blog is the special blog on bankruptcy built at Talking Points Memo last year, as Congress debated legislation to overhaul bankruptcy law. Elizabeth Warren spearheaded that effort and now blogs more broadly about issues important to the middle class at Warren Reports, which is part of Marshall's TPMCafe.
Other liberal blogs also are taking note of the issue. "[I]nstead of mitigating the disaster [of the program's implementation]," Think Progress concluded, "the Bush administration has launched a PR campaign."
Posted by at 07:28 AM | Comments (1)
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The call for lawmakers to read legislation before they vote on it is garnering lots of attention in the blogosphere these days.
Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation has been pushing the idea persistently this month at his blog, Tapscott's Copy Desk. Talk-radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt picked up the theme from Tapscott and asked all three candidates for House majority leader their views on the idea. (See Tapscott's take on their answers here, here and here.)
Now John Cole at Balloon Juice is touting a Web site called ReadTheBill that is dedicated to the "72 hours of sunshine" rule. "I would increase it to two weeks if I had my way ... but 72 hours is a nice start," Cole said.
Posted by at 07:02 AM | Comments (0)
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Ohio Governor: Interview With Ted Strickland
MyDD blogger Jonathan Singer interviewed Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland by telephone over the weekend about Strickland's bid to become Ohio's next governor.
Strickland explained his decision to seek the chief executive's job in the Buckeye State rather than pursue a fairly sure shot of re-election to the House. The interview also covered election reform, lobbying and ethics and health care. The full transcript is here.
Posted by at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
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Missouri Republican Roy Blunt may be the frontrunner in the race to become the next House majority leader, but he is not so confident of victory as to ignore the blogosphere. He has scheduled a blogger-only conference call for tomorrow afternoon.
Bloggers thus far have shown more affinity for Arizonan John Shadegg, the latecomer and underdog in the race. Shadegg also reached out to them Monday by granting an interview to radio host/blogger Hugh Hewitt. Shadegg even answered some questions posed by blogger Mark Tapscott, who works for the Heritage Foundation.
In his call with bloggers, Blunt will discuss his candidacy and take questions -- but not many of them. An e-mail sent to bloggers today called for the advance submission of questions and noted, "Due to time constraints, questions will be limited."
UPDATE: Boehner was on Hewitt's show yesterday. Tapscott was not impressed with Boehner's answer about posting the text of legislation on the Internet 72 hours before voting.
Posted by at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
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The blogosphere today officially joined the battle over who will be the next House majority leader, and Rep. John Shadegg spurred them to action.
Shadegg, R-Ariz., announced his candidacy for the leadership slot today and quickly won the endorsement of The Club For Growth, which posted the endorsement at its blog. Just hours earlier, the directors of the conservative group blog RedState had given Shadegg an incentive to jump into the race by endorsing him in advance of his decision.
Even more telling, Shadegg's candidacy appears to be the motivation for an online petition organized by a self-proclaimed group of center-right bloggers. Instapundit and The Truth Laid Bear, the two blogs behind the attention-grabbing PorkBusters campaign, are leading the petition effort, and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit branded it as part of the PorkBusters campaign.
Top blogs/bloggers like Captain's Quarters, Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin and PoliPundit were among the early backers of the effort, and the support is growing rapidly. Hewitt called the effort a "blogger rebellion" aimed at demanding accountability from the House leadership.
While the petition does not specifically endorse Shadegg, he is the only one of the three majority leader candidates named. And before he entered the race, bloggers had failed to rally around either Roy Blunt of Missouri or John Boehner of Ohio, the other two contestants vying to replace indicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
The petition calls for "the end of [lobbyist-]subsidized travel [for lawmakers] and other obvious influence operations." In line with the PorkBusters theme, it also urges "major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in congressional operations and in the appropriations process."
"As for the Republican leadership elections," the petition says, "we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for majority leader. We hope every congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future."
Hotline On Call already is calling Shadegg "the consensus candidate of the conservative intellectual establishment and the bloggers."
Democratic bloggers also took note of Shadegg's entrance into the race, albeit on a less flattering note.
The Plank recalled Shadegg's conflicting votes for and against a 2003 Medicare law reviled by many conservatives. "To recap: There's simply no way John Shadegg would ever have supported that massive drug benefit, which made a complete mockery of small-government conservatism," Michael Crowley wrote. "But he was heroically instrumental to its passage. Leadership, thy name is Shadegg!"
And Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo argued that the push for Shadegg "is part of a curious effort to redefine what's at issue here in intra-Republican politics away from the topic of corruption and toward the idea that the problem with Tom DeLay was insufficient fealty to rightwing dogma."
UPDATE: Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report did not accept an invitation to sign the letter from the center-right blogosphere because it "is silly and meaningless."
Shackleford blasted the bloggers who signed the letter for being naive enough to think that Americans care about the scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff and said the scandal should have no bearing on the majority leader's race. It is much more important to find a leader who is determined to fight terrorism and cut federal spending, Shackleford said.
"I will gladly let my congressman get away with just about anything in exchange for protecting me from the bad guys of the world and keeping his grubby paws out of my pockets. Let their paws remain in the pockets of whoever is trying to bribe them. Better theirs than mine."
Posted by at 07:12 AM | Comments (0)
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Homeland security has been among the hottest policy issues during the Bush administration and thus has been the genesis for a number of blogs. As of December, there is a new one on the list: Homeland Security Watch.
Christian Beckner, a senior homeland security analyst for IBM, is the author of the blog, and he is also seeking volunteers with expertise in the field to contribute content. Beckner previously worked as a fellow in the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The "about" page of Homeland Security Watch mentions that the blog is "written consistent with IBM's guidelines on employee blogs." It's encouraging to see that the corporation is not standing in the way of what appears to be a valuable policy blog.
Posted by at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
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The Irrelevance Of Confirmation Hearings
George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove has painted an ugly but accurate picture of the "ritual" of Supreme Court confirmation hearings after last week's sessions for Judge Samuel Alito.
"[T]he nominee must say that he'll have an open mind, that he will decide cases according to the 'rule of law,' that he has respect for precedent, and that he won't be a 'judicial activist,'" Solove wrote at Concurring Opinions. "The nominee must sit calmly while senators bluster and wait out the storm."
These days, he finds the pre-hearing vetting to be far more useful. "Most of the discussion occurred beforehand in the media and in the blogosphere. [Harriet] Miers, for example, had a hearing of sorts and was rejected before her official confirmation hearing had even begun."
The message: The blogosphere is helping to make a tradition of the establishment irrelevant. I expect more of that.
Posted by at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
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The Courtship Of The Blogosphere
Fifteen years ago, just a few months into my first full-time job as a reporter, I covered a speech by Iran-Contra figure Robert McFarlane. It was a defining moment in my career.
I say that not because of the speech, which was both predictable and unspectacular, or because of the story I wrote, which was ordinary and uninspiring. I say it because of what happened afterward: One of my journalistic brethren approached the disgraced national security adviser to former President Ronald Reagan and requested an autograph.
I was floored. How could a supposedly objective journalist solicit the autograph of a controversial news subject, especially before finishing his story? How objective could his story possibly be if he were so enthralled as to publicly request a favor from his source?
I felt the same way last week when reading the accounts of conservative bloggers handpicked by the Republican Party to cover the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito from Washington. The communications experts in the party took to new heights the courtship of the blogosphere that they began last fall -- and they found a most receptive audience.
The bloggers not only welcomed the lavish treatment and exclusive access bestowed upon them by the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference; they basked in it without reservation. They dropped names (White House adviser Karl Rove was the favorite), heaped praise on their news subjects and celebrated their chance to imbibe in the trappings of power.
By this point, you're probably thinking, "So what? They're bloggers, not journalists. Nobody expects them to be objective." I thought the same thing -- especially of the writers who attended the forums for sites like Blogs for Bush and GOP Bloggers.
I also remembered my first visit to Washington in 1988. I received a one-day press pass to the White House on the day that then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher bade farewell to Reagan. When I got home, I didn't write an exposé on the Iran-Contra scandal. I wrote a firsthand account of how cool it was to be at the White House.
Still, I recoiled at much of the content written by the GOP-approved bloggers last week. Why? Because the content they wrote from Washington, while being feted by the Republican Party, did not pack the same punch as their normal fare. Too often, they sounded more like unofficial stenographers for the GOP than the passionate, independent watchdogs that they normally are.
The bloggers occasionally provided powerful commentary on the actual confirmation hearings. They also dedicated plenty of space to experts ignored by the mainstream media, which is among the praiseworthy functions of blogs.
But the bloggers let pass a rare opportunity to grill senators and top officials about topics that matter to the bloggers. They let their sources set the agenda. Scott Johnson of Power Line did pursue one personal mission -- identifying who is responsible for delaying an unrelated judicial nomination -- but he appears to have been the exception to the rule.
The sessions revived, and arguably legitimized, criticism that at least some right-leaning bloggers are tools of the GOP. The events also raised questions about where, if at all, lines should be drawn between political parties, party-focused blogs and sometimes-journalistic blogs.
Minnesota-based blogger Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters paid his own expenses while in Washington, but he still caught flack from some readers. "[Y]ou are mainstream media, believe it or not," one of them wrote after seeing Morrissey's account of the mostly off-the-record meeting with Rove. "Many people read your opinions of things. And now you and your other blogger friends are meeting with Rove? That doesn't make me take you any more seriously; if anything, it does the complete opposite."
That kind of reaction does not surprise Steve Outing, a senior editor at the Poynter Institute and a proponent of citizen journalism. "Many bloggers want to be perceived as independent political watchdogs (though of course, many have a strong and visible point of view)," he said in an e-mail interview. "But if they come to be perceived as taking handouts from politicians, they lose credibility."
Outing also criticized the exclusive nature of last week's events. All of the blogs that participated are at least friendly toward the Republican Party, and some exist solely to push the party's ideology.
"My perception would be that I'm just going to be reading GOP propaganda and not learn anything," Outing said. "And I'd say the same thing if Democrats did the same thing.... Reach out to bloggers across the spectrum in terms of giving them access to events like today's, and maybe then we'll see something worthwhile come from it."
Henry Farrell, a political science professor at George Washington University and a blogger at Crooked Timber, said such party-sponsored events for bloggers make it "easier to manipulate the [political] process at least to some extent." He added that regulation of the sort opposed by many bloggers could be the end result.
"It's hard to fit bloggers well into the existing categories of election law -- they are neither pure journalists, nor pure activists, nor (usually) pure campaign operatives -- and election law is going to have to be changed to accommodate them," Farrell said.
Pat Cleary of the Manufacturers' Blog attended some of the GOP forums and said in an e-mail interview that "the beauty of blogging" is its unfiltered nature. "You get what people are saying without benefit of my bias or filter. ... My job isn't to pin them, debate them, argue with them. I'm glad to be invited, happy to write what they have to say."
I agree to an extent. But blogging also is beautiful because the people who are doing it are outsiders. They are neither part of the media establishment -- the MSM they hate so much -- nor the political establishment. Their ability to see the world differently than people inside the Beltway is precisely what moved them to outrage against former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., three years ago, when the establishment initially yawned.
The blogosphere lost some of that edge last week. I hope the loss is only fleeting.
Posted by at 09:12 AM | Comments (11)
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Center-right bloggers may be fond of Rep. John Shadegg as a candidate for majority leader, but TalkLeft blogger Jeralyn Merritt thinks he's an invitation to "disaster."
Citing a Washington Post article that described Shadegg as the progeny of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Merritt warned that if elected, Shadegg will bring the Gingrich-inspired Contract With America "back from the grave." Her particular objection is with the anti-crime provisions of the contract that became law, thanks in part to President Clinton.
"The point is, putting someone like Rep. John Shadegg in a House leadership position invites a disaster for all Americans who care about their freedoms," Merritt wrote. "Is any Republican better? Probably not by much. The only solution is to take back Congress in 2006 and hope the Democrats we elect are more sensitive to civil liberties and criminal justice issues than those who supported the Contract on America."
Considering Shadegg's status as a heavy underdog in the majority leader's race, the criticisms being lobbed at him from the left side of the blogosphere are rather curious. Of course, the same could be said of the center-right bloggers who seem to be on Shadegg's side. It just goes to show that bloggers see the world a whole lot differently than folks inside the Beltway.
Posted by at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: Rep. Hensarling Endorses Shadegg
Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas is backing fellow Republican John Shadegg of Arizona to be the next majority leader, and he announced his support at RedState.
"He is a strong, effective and principled conservative leader who truly understands the need for renewal and reform," Hensarling wrote. "As the new majority leader, John Shadegg will help the Republican Conference retain and strengthen our majority based on the principles that won it: limited government, fiscal discipline, individual freedom and a strong national defense."
Hensarling does not yet have a release on his congressional Web site indicating his support for Shadegg. Instead, he used a group blog with a much broader readership to deliver the message. That's a smart and innovative use of the blogosphere.
Posted by at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)
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Rep. John Murtha took a hit on the Internet last week when Cybercast News Service raised questions about his "hero status."
The Pennsylvania Democrat, who since late last year has been a lightning rod in the debate over the war in Iraq, answered the charges himself in an entry at The Huffington Post.
"Questions about my record are clearly an attempt to distract attention from the real issue, which is that our brave men and women in uniform are dying and being injured every day in the middle of a civil war that can be resolved only by the Iraqis themselves."
A day earlier, Murtha penned a separate entry that chastised President Bush for repeatedly portraying the war as part of a "global war on terrorism." Instead, Murtha said the fighting actually is a "civil war" between Iraqi factions, with U.S. troops stuck in the middle.
Posted by at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)
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The Washington Post started a blog last week that is focused on Maryland politics.
Maryland Moment is being written by the newspaper's four reporters in Annapolis, the state capital of the Old Line State, and by the reporter who is covering the gubernatorial bid of Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan.
Duncan's campaign has a blog, too, as does the campaign of his Democratic rival, Martin O'Malley. Bob Ehrlich, the incumbent Republican governor, does not have a blog on his campaign site.
Posted by at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
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Blog Fight For House Majority Leader?
Marc Ambinder of Hotline On Call sees the makings of a blog fight for House majority leader, and you don't have to click any further than RedState to appreciate his insight.
The potential for a battle led by conservative blogs exists because of their affinity for Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. Ambinder outlined the reasons for Pence's blog base: "Outspoken. Ornery. Fiscally conservative. Strong-willed. Not connected with the powers that be. A blogger himself. Outsider-ish (just like bloggers.)" Pence also heads the Republican Study Committee, which now has a blog as well.
Ambinder said the GOP establishment, on the other hand, might prefer someone like John Boehner of Ohio, Roy Blunt of Missouri or Eric Cantor of Virginia. None of them have blogs on either their congressional or campaign sites, and they don't appear to have a fan base in the conservative blogosphere.
At RedState, the anonymous bloggers Augustine and Blanton have made the case for a House led in part by Pence.
Augustine made his pitch for Pence last month. Noting that the RSC is "the single-most significant and effective outpost for conservative ideas in the whole of Congress," he said Pence has fought valiantly for the right -- sometimes winning, sometimes taking one for the cause and sometimes taking the GOP leadership to task for "ignoring the values of the people who elected them."
"While Pence and many of his ideological friends may, in fact, think he can be more effective as a coalition leader than as a 'leader of the party,' I respectfully disagree," Augustine wrote. "We've had quite enough of leaders who are hampered by the fact that they believe in very little, and are willing to fight for even less. It's time for an honorable and principled conservative to take a leadership role in the Republican Party."
His entry sparked a few dozen comments on the merits of a leadership bid by Pence. RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky was among those who commented, and he suggested that Pence is more valuable at the RSC. "I'm not sure that we don't get more done with Pence driving a solid block of 80 no-compromise Republicans as we would with him trying to consistently cobble together 218."
But Blanton challenged that argument in his new post on Friday. "Right now the House Republicans need Mike Pence. He's done wonders revitalizing the Republican Study Committee. It has become an effective organization. There are others there, like Jeb Hensarling [of Texas], who can keep it going. There are not many in the Republican ranks who can revitalize Republican leadership in the House as a whole. Mike Pence can, and Mike Pence should be given the opportunity."
UPDATE: There will be no blog fight on Pence's behalf, according to Capitol Report. Pence announced that he will not seek the majority leader's job.
UPDATE II: With Pence opting not to run, RedState is touting "reformer and conservative" John Shadegg of Arizona for majority leader.
Shadegg joined the race today, a day after RedState's endorsement. He also sent a letter to GOP colleagues.
"Whether we accept Boehner or Blunt (if we were forced to choose, it would be Boehner), we would be choosing a compromised leader at a time when every indication is that the Democrats intend to wage war on ethics," the site's directors wrote. "We need a better choice. John Shadegg is that choice."
Posted by at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)
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Last year, the Service Employees International Union launched a Web site called Since Sliced Bread and successfully promoted it in a blog advertising campaign. The goal was to solicit new ideas for strengthening the economy and improving the lives of working Americans, and more than 22,000 tips were submitted.
Now that SEIU has narrowed the list of ideas to the top 21, it is running another round of blog ads and asking readers to vote. But the response this time has not been nearly so positive.
The top ideas touch on everything from healthcare and education to money management and agriculture. For various reasons, followers of the project are not too enthralled with the finalists.
Ezra Klein said the proposals "are largely banal, with most every one available in more comprehensive, edited fashion from various think tank and congress-critter Web sites. That's not to say they're bad; I'm certainly for standardized health data, and a universal medicare pilot program and lots of wireless Internet. But I was hoping to see some innovative, salt-o'-the-earth gems."
Andy Roth of The Club For Growth was equally unimpressed -- but with the substance of the ideas, not just their lack of creativity. "Those funny, funny liberals," he wrote. "These aren't 'fresh, common sense' ideas. They are recycled, liberal ideas that were thoroughly discredited in the 20th century. This Web site is nothing more than an affirmation that the Democratic Party, propped up by the unions, are completely devoid of ideas."
Those complaints and plenty more prompted Since Sliced Bread to respond at its own blog yesterday: "Many of you have pointed out that there are a lot of wonderful ideas that didn't end up among the finalists. You're right. ... I want to open up this space to talk about how we can spotlight and promote other good ideas here." The entry already has generated more than 235 comments.
Clearly, the project has captured the fascination of a significant portion of the public. But the founders seem to be spinning their wheels. It doesn't make sense to solicit ideas, narrow the field and then expand it again. They deserve kudos for trying to stay true to the conversational spirit of the blogosphere. But as of now, Since Sliced Bread actually looks more like the worst thing since unsliced bread.
Posted by at 07:30 AM | Comments (1)
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The PorkBusters campaign against project-specific earmarks for federal spending had a significant impact in 2005, and now the leaders of that campaign are planning for 2006.
The Truth Laid Bear is the clearinghouse for ideas, which include enlisting more direct support from pork-hating Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., limiting the terms of lawmakers and imposing line-item budgeting.
Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation also shared his ideas in a detailed post at Tapscott's Copy Desk. They include applying the Freedom of Information Act to Congress, posting the text of legislation to the Internet at least 72 hours before votes are cast, and identifying who requested specific spending and providing the documentation to prove it. Tapscott also put out the call for a "PorkBusters SWAT Team to help ... find and expose the thousands of 'bridges to nowhere' in the federal budget each year."
One reader at The Truth Laid Bear said that may be the best approach. "Really, the only leverage the blogs have is publicity," Jon Henke said. "All we can do is offer to shame politicians who support pork and pro-pork laws and support politicians who do the opposite. If a politician, a party or a significant bipartisan faction was to endorse one of these ideas, I think you'd see significant bipartisan support from the blogosphere -- and that's a LOT of free advertising."
Tapscott suggested yet another approach in a separate entry: lobbying government officials. Specifically, he urged bloggers to contact a Health and Human Services Department official about construction projects of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Posted by at 07:12 AM | Comments (1)
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The Broken 'Netroots' Triangle
The Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito and news of domestic spying by the Bush administration have been among the biggest stories of the past few weeks, and Peter Daou of The Daou Report said both prove "the isolation of the progressive netroots."
Daou reached that conclusion after examining the reactions of bloggers, the Washington political establishment and the media to both stories. The three comprise what Daou calls "the triangle," and he said political blogs cannot accomplish their goals unless they connect to the other two parts of the triangle.
"A flurry of activity among bloggers, online activists and advocacy groups is met with ponderously inept strategizing by the Democratic leadership and relentless -- and insidious -- repetition by the media of pro-GOP narratives and soundbites," Daou said of the response to the spying and confirmation stories. "It's slow-motion-car-wreck painful, and most certainly NOT where the left's triangle should be a half decade into the new millennium."
Posted by at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
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From the perspective of MyDD blogger Chris Bowers, Sen. Russ Feingold may be the key to defeating the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito.
Feingold, D-Wis., is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Bowers said Democrats on the panel need to stay unified in voting against Alito if the party is to have any hope of defeating him. Feingold has won plenty of praise from bloggers of late -- especially for his fight against the USA PATRIOT Act -- but his loyalty to the netroots party line on Alito is in doubt because of Feingold's earlier vote for the nomination of now-Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
John Nichols of The Online Beat dubbed that decision the "most disappointing vote" of the Roberts confirmation battle. But Bowers, in Washington this week for the Alito hearings, chatted briefly with Feingold and hinted that he may be less enthused with Alito.
"He told me that he has not reached the same comfort level with Alito that he had reached with Roberts at this point in time," Bowers said. "He also told me that he would be going back to Wisconsin to talk with constituents before he decided how he was going to vote. ... Use this thread to send a message to Senator Feingold. I now know that he reads at least some comment threads here at MyDD, so I have a feeling you can reach him."
A few readers did just that. But one posted a message that Bowers may not want Feingold to hear: "Vote your conscience. ... Think it through, and if you come to the conclusion that he's acceptable, I won't have any less respect or admiration for you."
Posted by at 07:53 PM | Comments (0)
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Rep. Jack Kingston held a conference call with bloggers yesterday to tout the candidacy of Roy Blunt for House majority leader. Tim Chapman of Townhall.com participated in Kingston's blog call and has the details at Capitol Report.
Missouri's Blunt is battling John Boehner of Ohio in the race to replace Texan Tom DeLay, whose ethics woes prompted him to resign as majority leader last week. As a blogger himself (both on his congressional site and at the group blog RedState), Georgia's Kingston is a good emissary to the blogosphere on Blunt's behalf.
But the latest numbers from National Journal's Hotline On Call show that the courtship of conservative bloggers, some of whom had hoped "blawgmaker" Mike Pence of Indiana would join the race, may not be necessary. Blunt has a commanding lead in the contest.
Posted by at 07:20 AM | Comments (0)
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Rep. Jane Harman took a few minutes from her ongoing trip to Europe and Africa to post at TPMCafe her insights on changing European attitudes about ailing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Harman, D-Calif., praised Sharon for seizing a window of opportunity to pursue peace in the Middle East after the November 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "We now know that in seizing the post-Arafat moment, Sharon embraced the role of statesman," she wrote. "His unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and hints at further peace initiatives were bold steps to secure the Jewish state of Israel."
Posted by at 07:12 AM | Comments (0)
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Whack-A-Pol: The Sport Of Bloggers
This week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel Alito appear to have given rise to a new sport in the blogosphere: Whack-A-Pol.
Here's how the game is played: Every time a senator pops up with a comment on Alito, bloggers whack 'em down with a rhetorical hammer. But unlike the game Whack-A-Mole, where the nimble moles often avoid the blows by ducking into their holes, no senator -- regardless of party or popularity outside the realm of mouth-to-mouth combat over judicial nominations -- can escape the jabs of bloggers. Even worse, bloggers tend to prefer hammers of the sledge variety to the padded pummeling tools used on those carnival rodents.
Read the potshot John Aravosis of Americablog took at Lindsey Graham, for instance. Aravosis apparently once thought that Graham might be different from his colleagues, but then he heard the South Carolina Republican address the issue of court reviews of "enemy combatants" being held in the war against terrorism.
"I'm disappointed to see that he has an evil, dishonest, political side just like most Republicans in town," Aravosis said.
That dig was tame compared with the one Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos leveled at Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "OK, Tom Coburn really IS a loon," he wrote after Coburn ranted about sodomy, prostitution and abortion.
Armando, another Daily Kos contributor, dismissed "Box Turtle Cornyn" -- that's John Cornyn, R-Texas -- as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party line. As near as I can tell, the box-turtle reference is to a much-maligned 2004 quote from Cornyn about rearing children "in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife." But in any case, it's definitely not a compliment.
Bloggers on the right have been even more brutal in bashing Democratic senators who dare to speak at or about Alito's confirmation hearings.
Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters called Russ Feingold a "jerk" for his "outright insulting" suggestion that Alito may have been prepped for the hearings a bit too much by White House staff. And National Review Online's Bench Memos accused Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, of being a demagogue for questioning Alito about the search of a suspected drug dealer's 10-year-old daughter.
Sometimes the senators' names alone lend themselves to attack. Alliterative headline references to "Buffoon Biden" and "Demagogue Durbin" (as in Dick Durbin, D-Ill.) are hard to resist. And when a senator like Joe Biden, D-Del., asks a question that takes more than three times as many words as Alito's answer, that just begs for commentary.
What it all comes down to is the reality that many bloggers (and many Americans, according to polls) just don't respect members of Congress.
Although he spoke only of Senate Democrats at the time, Mark Noonan of GOP Bloggers actually represented that general contempt of Congress quite well when he wrote this: "On behalf of all Americans, I'd like to apologize for making Judge Alito put up with a bunch of pontificating, partisan political ignoramouses (sic) as they preen themselves for the TV cameras. ... It is a farce. Why don't they just say 'we're going to vote on our pre-conceived desires' and allow Alito to go golfing instead of listening to this nonsense."
UPDATE: Morrissey's take on Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.: He is a "vacuous boob" who thinks Alito should be held responsible for his preferred reading materials.
Posted by at 01:10 PM | Comments (1)
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One of the lawyers who contributes to TalkLeft is headed to Africa to work on a war-crimes trial.
John Wesley Hall practices law in Little Rock, Ark., and he is representing Sam Hinga Norman, who was indicted by Sierra Leone in 2003 for alleged war crimes. In addition to writing for TalkLeft, Hall blogs at his own site, FourthAmendment. While in Africa, he will be posting updates on the case there.
For anyone interested in following the trial, Hall said in a note at FourthAmendment that he typically will post updates in the afternoons. He will be in Africa until late this month.
Posted by at 07:03 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: Sherrod Brown's Progressive Appeal
Rep. Sherrod Brown recently finished a four-day tour of his home state of Ohio as part of his bid for the Democratic nomination to the Senate. The aim: to explain his "progressive" philosophy to voters.
On Monday, Brown took that message online by authoring an entry at The Huffington Post.
"Most of my political heroes were progressives: Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, John Lewis and of course, Franklin Delano Roosevelt," Brown wrote. "Most were Democrats, but not all. They knew that legislation is only one way to fight social and economic justice. They knew that we must also directly confront the sources of that injustice."
To that end, Brown vowed to challenge drug manufacturers and big oil companies over the prices of their products, as well as multinational corporations that move their jobs overseas. And he said he fully expects the biggest drug companies to "pour a million, 2 million, maybe 3 million dollars into our state to try and defeat me."
UPDATE: Brown's talk of progressivism is becoming part of what may be history's first blog stump speech. He is guest-blogging at TPMCafe this week, and his first post yesterday touched on the same theme as his entry at The Huffington Post.
Posted by at 07:15 AM | Comments (1)
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All In The Blogosphere Family
The Family Research Council entered the blogosphere last week, just in time for the group's Justice Sunday III event in Philadelphia yesterday.
Charmaine Yoest is the managing editor of FRCblog and one of its only two active contributors. The only other contributor so far has been Tom McClusky, the group's director of government affairs.
Last month, the council hired Yoest -- who also blogs at her own site, Reasoned Audacity -- as the vice president of external relations. In addition to her work at Justice Sunday III, a project that focused on judicial nominations just before the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel Alito that began this morning, Yoest will co-host the first annual Blogs4Life on Jan. 23.
For council-sanctioned blog coverage of Justice Sunday III, visit La Shawn Barber, Captain's Quarters, Mind and Media, and Rightwingsparkle. As Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters disclosed last week, the Family Research Council paid his expenses for the trip to Philadelphia.
FRCblog is now part of the blogroll to the left. One other blogroll addition, under the media category: The Swamp, which is being recognized as the first-ever blog by a Washington newspaper bureau. The Chicago Tribune is behind The Swamp.
Posted by at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
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Law blogs are a staple on the Internet these days, and the Association of American Law Schools recognized as much at its annual conference in Washington last week. The agenda included a discussion on the scholarly merits of blogging.
Check the summaries at Concurring Opinions, PrawfsBlawg and TaxProf Blog for the scoop on the roundtable.
UPDATE: Legal Theory Blog also has a post on the topic.
Posted by at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: The Facts About Spying
The public furor over spying on Americans suspected of communicating with terrorists was enough to get Rep. Jane Harman blogging. The California Democrat joined the ranks of guest contributors at The Huffington Post to address the subject.
Harman is the top Democrat on the House Select Intelligence Committee and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, so she is not as quick as some Democrats to attack the Bush administration over the mechanics of the war against terrorism. But when it comes to allegations like those about the National Security Agency spying on Americans, she said Congress must be kept better informed.
"Now that the president has publicly disclosed the existence of a classified NSA program, I believe the full intelligence committees must be briefed," Harman wrote. "As I stated in a letter I sent the president yesterday, the president is required to keep the congressional intelligence committees 'fully and currently' informed of all intelligence activities."
She questioned the legality of "the practice of briefing only certain members of the intelligence committees." She also touted a bill, H.R. 4570, that would change the system for issuing "national security letters" to get data and records without judicial approval.
Michelle Malkin challenged Harman's view of the law. Although Malkin corrected her post after Think Progress ridiculed her "bogus legal theory," one aspect of Malkin's underlying criticism still seems valid.
"Rep. Harman was among those briefed on the NSA project during the past four years," Malkin said. "If she felt that President Bush was committing a felony by failing to brief all members of the congressional intelligence committees, why didn't she tell anyone until now?"
Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters also examines the "Buyer's Remorse" of Harman and other Democrats.
Posted by at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
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The Washington Post still has not responded, at least not officially, to allegations that its Dec. 26 article on military bloggers was filled with inaccuracies, but bloggers are demanding corrections.
Much of the article, which argued that the military is using bloggers embedded with U.S. troops to spread propaganda about the war in Iraq, was dedicated to the work of "milblogger" Bill Roggio of The Fourth Rail and ThreatsWatch. Roggio noted "flaws" in the article, including factual ones, a day after it ran, but the newspaper has not run a correction.
Michelle Malkin is leading the charge against the Post. The liberal blog Raw Story also has been following the story.
"Bloggers on the right and left should remain united in forcing Post reporters Jonathan Finer and Douglas Struck and their editors to address their errors and misrepresentations," Malkin wrote yesterday in a post that reprinted the newspaper's correction policy and contact information.
One of Malkin's readers apparently received a written response from Post ombudsman Deborah Howell. She said the paper's editors have had trouble contacting the reporters in Iraq but added that "there will be an answer."
Milblogger Blackfive took a tough stance against the paper for going so long without a correction. "I've got friends at the WashPo," he wrote. "Unfortunately, I have no choice but to avoid reading it. I suggest you do the same."
UPDATE: Instapundit Glenn Reynolds is on the case, too. Among other things, he linked to a call for "veteran volunteers" to help milblogger Michael Yon build a new publication called Frontline Forum.
"Now that I'm back in the United States for a time ... it's become clear that in just under a year, the media gap has morphed into a chasm," Yon said. "Before this thing becomes a black hole, it's time for a few good men and women to put their military experience and expertise to use in an operation that can create an alternative channel that will allow frontline information to break through and be heard."
Reynolds also quoted at length an e-mail from a reader who thinks the military bears some blame for the current state of reporting on the war because the Pentagon does not include blogs in its information loop. "The Bush administration has said that the support of the American people is a strategic center of gravity in winning the war," the reader said, "and I believe the best method today is the use of blogs to meet that end. [The Defense Department] needs to use the best means possible to reach the American people, and blogs are it."
Posted by at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)
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Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the head of the blogging empire that is Daily Kos, is on a crusade against "mainstream media." That's right, he's on a crusade against the phrase that so many bloggers use to describe traditional news outlets. And he feels the same way about the shorthand "MSM," too.
Moulitsas is still no fan of some of the work the media do. But the accuracy of the terminology used to describe his foes is just as important to him these days. "[T]he chief reason is that interactive media is now mainstream," he wrote. "In fact, there are tons of blogs and wikis and e-mail lists that have larger readerships than most of the so-called MSM. ... So really, why do we continue to self-marginalize by pretending we're not mainstream?"
Moulitas prefers the term "traditional media" instead, but that lacks the punch and pizzazz of mainstream media/MSM. Besides, the shorthand "TM" is already taken. It's what people use to denote ownership of a brand before officially registering their trademarks.
Considering that I'm part of the MSM, I probably shouldn't offer up any ideas. But I'm thinking of something more like the "Ivory Tower of Babble" or the "Green-Eyeshade Gang." ITB has a nice ring to it, and GEG sounds an awful lot like "gag," which is what a lot of bloggers seem to do when they are exposed to the MSM.
Any other ideas?
Posted by at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
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Chuck Todd's Take On Candidate Blogs
Hotline Editor-in-Chief Chuck Todd proffered some "calculated hedges" for the 2006 campaigns in his column this week, and one of them touched on a topic I'll be following closely this year: candidate blogs.
Under the category "Campaign Tech Tool That Will Gain The Most Traction," Chuck listed "unvarnished candidate blogs" as one of the options. Alas, he predicted that "funny Internet ads," like the kind that emerged at JibJab in 2004, are more likely to win the affection of campaign staffers. The reason: "It's the safest innovation a campaign can make. Very little risk, other than not eliciting a laugh."
Chuck added that candidate blogs (as well as the other tools he listed) will be tried -- the ever-mounting evidence is here -- and he praised blogger/Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as being "the closest who actually writes somewhat stream of consciousness."
Posted by at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
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The cover story in the January issue of Citizen Magazine, a publication of Focus on the Family, is all about blogs, which is obvious from the "Pajama Warriors" title and the illustration of a man at his breakfast table, coffee cup in hand.
The opening sets the tone of the piece: "Bloggers. Blogosphere. Blog swarm. If you don't know and don't care what these terms mean, you're not alone. Most Americans probably don't know or care, either. But you can be certain that politicians and the news media care a lot about blogs ... because some especially enterprising political blogs swarm like locusts over every major story, often eating the political and media elites' lunch in the process."
Despite the conservative slant -- not a surprise, considering the source -- the story is worth a read. It recaps some of the greatest moments of conservative blogging, including the demise of CBS News anchor Dan Rather, and also touches briefly on blogging by lawmakers and candidates. The writers then examine the impact that niche blogs can have locally and that religious blogs can have spiritually.
"What I especially like about this magazine feature," Mark Tapscott wrote in a blurb at his blog, "is that it demonstrates the authors really do get it on the potential impact of bloggers on American public policy."
One surprise in the article, to me anyway: seeing a Presbyterian preacher from Irvine, Calif., use the phrase "hell in a handbasket."
Posted by at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
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As a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Lynn Swann is used to having fans. But because his career as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers ended in 1982, well before the advent of the World Wide Web, he certainly isn't used to having them blog about him.
That was then, this is now. And with Swann as a Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, he will have to get used to the idea of other people blogging about him. Some of them, like the RedState contributors who launched Swannblog this week, will be friends to the candidate; others are sure to be foes.
Swann will be part of the blogging party, too. His campaign started a blog on Wednesday, the day he announced his candidacy. However, the blog has no substance yet -- just a couple of briefs about the official announcement.
For a broader read on Pennsylvania politics, try this sampling of blogs from the Keystone State: Capitol Ideas, FreePA, Grassroots PA, Keystone Politics and Reform PA Now.
Posted by at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
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Candidate Blogs: Illinois
Illinois' first-in-the-nation candidate filing deadline was Monday, so I decided to visit the Web sites of the congressional and gubernatorial candidates to see how many have blogs. The unsurprising answer: not many.
Of the eight gubernatorial candidates and the 64 House candidates in 19 districts, only eight have blogs on their campaign sites. Six are Democrats, and two are Republicans. Two other Republican incumbents -- Speaker Dennis Hastert and Mark Steven Kirk -- have blogs on their congressional sites, where campaign activity is not allowed.
The most interest in campaign blogging among Illinois candidates is in the 6th District, which has a competitive Democratic primary. Two of the three candidates, 2004 Democratic nominee Christine Cegelis and Lindy Scott, have blogs. Tammy Duckworth, who announced her candidacy just a day before the filing deadline, does not have a blog at her campaign site.
Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky wins the prize for the most unique campaign blog. Hers is aimed not just at her re-election but at helping candidates in "tough districts" nationwide.
You can see a list of federal and state candidates in Illinois here. Beltway Blogroll's list of the blogs for gubernatorial and House candidates is below, and I will update it as I hear of more.
The next filing deadline is Jan. 2 in Texas, to be followed by filings in West Virginia and then Kentucky later next month. My goal is to post similar entries of candidate blogs by state -- though that could take a while in months like March, April, June and July, when several states have deadlines.
Keep checking back for the lists, and if I miss a blog, please e-mail me at dglover@nationaljournal.com.
Illinois Candidate Blogs
-- Bill Brady, Republican, governor
-- Christine Cegelis, Democrat, 6th District
-- Mark Fredrickson, Democrat, 5th District
-- David Gill, Democrat, 15th District
-- John Laesch, Democrat, 14th District
-- Kathy Salvi, Republican, 8th District
-- Jan Schakowsky, Democrat, 9th District
-- Bill Scheurer, independent, 8th District
-- Lindy Scott, Democrat, 6th District
UPDATE: I added the blog of Bill Scheurer, an independent candidate in the 8th District. "The life of a blog is community," Scheurer wrote in an e-mail explaining his campaign's approach to blogging. "We decided not to try and replicate this phenomenon but to highlight existing blogs instead."
The blog consists of eight brief, link-only entries since late July. Most of them point to the blog at Working Life, a site run by Jonathan Tasini. He is now a Democratic primary challenger to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York and also has a campaign blog.
Posted by at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)
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Candidate Blogs: Texas
The filing deadline for 2006 congressional and gubernatorial candidates in Texas was Monday, and I have scoured the Web for candidate blogs in the Lonestar State.
I found 10 blogs and two diaries, one each at Daily Kos and MyDD. All but two are for Democratic candidates. Rep. Mike Conaway, the only Republican incumbent in Congress without a Democratic challenger this year, also has a blog at his congressional site.
Here's the rundown:
Texas candidate blogs
-- Kevin Anderson, Democrat, 4th District
-- Ted Ankrum, Democrat, 10th District
-- Michael Badnarick, Libertarian, 10th District
-- Chris Bell, Democrat, governor
-- John Courage, Democrat, 21st District
-- Richard (Kinky) Friedman, independent, governor
-- Mary Beth Harrell, Democrat, 31st District
-- David Harris, Democrat, 6th District
-- Nick Lampson, Democrat, 22nd District
-- David Murff, Democrat, 7th District
-- Gary Page, Democrat, 24th District
-- Will Pryor, Democrat, 32nd District
-- Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Democrat, Senate
This is the second installment of my running list of candidate blogs. The first was for Illinois. So far, Democratic blogs outnumber Republican ones by an 8-to-1 ratio. The next candidate filing deadlines are Jan. 28 in West Virginia and Jan. 31 in Kentucky.
If you are aware of blogs or diaries that I have missed, please shoot me an e-mail at dglover@nationaljournal.com.
UPDATE: An Internet strategist with the Courage campaign just pointed me to the Daily Kos diary of Mary Beth Harrell in the 31st District. I've added it to the list.
Posted by at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
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When the community of bloggers built around the Daily Kos empire gathers in Las Vegas this summer, they will be graced by the presence of at least one Washington powerbroker.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreed to speak at the YearlyKos bloggers' convention June 8-11, according to a Tuesday release from the YearlyKos board. The release noted that Reid and other lawmakers have posted content at Daily Kos and that the convention is a sign of blogs' growing influence.
"It used to be fashionable to snicker at blogs like Daily Kos," board member Bill Harnsberger said in a statement, "but we're being taken a lot more seriously these days."
Hotline On Call found a Republican who sees the conference, and especially Reid's decision to speak, a bit different. The excerpt: "Don Stewart, an aide to Sen. John Cornyn, says Reid is 'opening himself up to a swarm of criticism by those who are offended by the vitriol spewed by that group. It looks an awful lot like an endorsement of their comments -- and that's an albatross he probably doesn't want.'"
UPDATE: Although he doesn't come right out and say it, Bull Moose Marshall Wittmann apparently thinks it's a bad idea for Reid to reach out to the Daily Kos community -- or for politicians in general to pay attention to bloggers.
In a more strongly worded follow-up to a December entry that sparked some criticism from lefty bloggers, Wittmann said politicians "should completely ignore the blogosphere."
His apparent reference to the news that Reid will speak at YearlyKos: "The last thing in the world a Democratic leader should do is to attend a convention of blog readers. ... [T]hey should use their precious time speaking to [Veterans of Foreign Wars] conventions, sermonizing at mega-churches and attending NASCAR races. Democrats are a minority party, and they must evangelize and proselytize, and not pander to the zealots among their flock."
Wittmann added that although he is a blogger, he "does not worship at the altar of his mouse."
Posted by at 11:23 AM | Comments (1)
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No Press Pass For You!
Some bloggers in Kentucky want to cover the state's legislative session set to begin this week, but the press nazis who control access to the state Capitol apparently aren't going to let that happen.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the news Saturday, and bloggers Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy, and Doug Petsch have the commentary.
Tapscott isn't surprised by the decision because he said authorities don't always want better coverage of what they are doing and that's exactly what bloggers would provide. He added that the battle "is likely an early skirmish in what will be a lengthy nationwide struggle for bloggers to achieve the recognition they deserve as valuable public policy resources from government officials."
Petsch, meanwhile, said the lack of official recognition as press shouldn't keep Kentucky bloggers from their watchdog role. "Personally, I figure something as simple as a place to sit will be easily solved if someone really wants to write about what's going on with our government," he said. "After all, there's nothing to stop those who so desire from sitting in the public galleries, but I suppose it's not quite the same ego-stroke as sitting with the cool kids in the press section."
UPDATE: Andy Roth of The Club for Growth is calling for a blog swarm against the Kentucky legislature. "I think putting pressure on those in charge in Kentucky would be a great project for the entire blogosphere to get behind," he wrote. "If we win in Kentucky, we will win everywhere else. It's time for blogging barbarians to jump the moat and tear down the gate."
Posted by at 12:24 PM | Comments (3)
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Hillary Clinton And The Blogosphere
Communications professor David Perlmutter of PolicyByBlog, the author of a forthcoming book on political blogs, thinks Hillary Rodham Clinton may have reason to worry about bloggers in her own party if she runs for president.
Perlmutter said the New York senator, whose only blog entries to date were "press releases rather than real posts," may need her deep campaign coffers, high name recognition and solid poll numbers if bloggers decide to attack. "Clinton is faring poorly among the left/Dem/liberal blogs and partisans precisely because of her consistent attempt to steer a 'middle' policy course and win swing voters," he wrote.
According to Perlmutter, the problem for Clinton is that bloggers "tend to be passionate, idealistic about their politics, and less forgiving of the gamesmanship, issue-flopping, expediency, rhetorical hedging, 'message discipline,' 'good optics' and compromise on positions that is part of normal politicking for office" -- practices where Clinton excels.
He said much the same of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the one candidate who is Clinton's current equal in polls. Right-leaning blogs are not all that fond of McCain because of his moderate views, Perlmutter said. "Politicians have always needed to balance the base and the middle. Blogs make this tension, if not more difficult, more public."
Posted by at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
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The New York Times has a good read on how journalistic sources are using the Internet, and especially blogs, as an accountability check on the media.
Most of the article focuses on how sources in the business sector interact with the media in the information age, but the use of blogs by sources is sure to impact the policy world, too. The story noted that the Defense and State departments already post transcripts of interviews with top officials online, and as aggravated as officials often get with their media coverage, it only makes sense for them to start posting transcripts or point-by-point responses to coverage on their blogs.
Sure, not many lawmakers have blogs right now, but as I predicted last week, that will change. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., recently noted that he started blogging in part to bypass the media. Blogs are equally valuable for challenging unfriendly media coverage.
Posted by at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
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RedState is starting the New Year with a new structure and domain name -- and promises of more changes to come.
Founded as a registered political action committee for the benefit of Republican candidates, RedState decided to go commercial a few weeks ago. The new site, located at www.redstate.com (rather than .org), will get its money from advertising rather than reader contributions. The underlying software also will be changed, a decision that new RedState CEO Clayton Wagar explained in a comment. The RedState PAC also will remain active.
RedState.com also posted rules for comments on the site: no profanity, personal attacks, harassment or demonization, or disruptive behavior or off-topic comments.
Wagar added this explanation on the use of profanity: "The rules are simple. If you have any doubt about whether to use a word or phrase, don't. If you still don't know what that means, don't post. Profanity is not necessary to make a point, add emphasis or convey a message. There are plenty of other places on the 'net to be vulgar and base, but RedState will not be one of them."
Posted by at 03:31 PM | Comments (1)
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The Family Research Council will host its latest in a series of "Justice Sunday" events six days from now in Philadelphia, and religion-friendly bloggers are invited. Actually, they are becoming a staple of the events.
The council first invited bloggers to Justice Sunday II, which was held last August in Nashville. Rightwingsparkle is among those who plans to attend the Jan. 8 event in Philadelphia, and she said Captain's Quarters, LaShawn Barber, and Mind and Media will be represented in the City of Brotherly Love, too. The Justice Sunday Web site will have a full roster of bloggers on the day of the event.
The gatherings also spark plenty of critical commentary, like the posts at The Left Is Right And Other Observations and One Salient Oversight after Justice Sunday II.
Posted by at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)
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In The Blog's-Eye: 'Villains' In Congress
Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft joined the stream of contributors at The Huffington Post who ended 2005 with reviews of the past year, and she focused her year-end commentary on the Top 10 "Villains of 2005."
Several of the villains in her mind are members of Congress. Republicans Tom Tancredo of Colorado and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin ranked 10th and ninth -- Tancredo for his "hatred of undocumented residents" and Sensenbrenner for his anti-crime and immigration bills. Merritt also is no fan of the "Gang of 14" moderate senators, seven Democrats and seven Republicans, who reached an agreement on when it is acceptable to filibuster judicial nominations. Their "sellout" ranked sixth.
Another of Merritt's villains was Vice President Richard Cheney, the president of the Senate. She called him both the "veep who would be king" and the "torturer in chief." Despite those monikers, he merited only a fifth-place ranking.
Finishing second: The 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act. And first: Everyone in the U.S. military allegedly involved in torture.
Posted by at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)
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Blogger Michelle Malkin has a recap of the media's "War On Blogs" in 2005. Columnist Kathleen Parker ranks second for her hypocritical rant at the end of the year.
Read Malkin's whole list; it's amusing to see again just how "unhinged" the media have become because of bloggers. I won't be surprised to see more of the same in 2006.
Posted by at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
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