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January 20, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Interview: Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit
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.
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