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Friday Festival Of Blog Bits

The directors of RedState opened the week with a powerful endorsement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"Secretary Rumsfeld has been a solid and committed leader during a time of great trial," they wrote in one of their occasional attempts at playing the role of information age editorial board. "If irritated [Defense Department] professionals and former members of the Pentagon bureaucracy is all it takes to oust a Defense secretary -- with an assist from grandstanding journalists, peaceniks in the streets and ill-informed conservatives on the op-ed pages -- then Washington is truly gone haywire. Our armed forces deserve better, and Donald Rumsfeld deserves our support."

Two days later, President Bush reiterated his support for Rumsfeld. "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as secretary of Defense."

Other blog bits from this week:

-- Hugh Hewitt challenged bloggers to toss some financial support to the Minnesota Senate campaign of Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy. The Republican National Committee echoed the call, as did Captain's Quarters.

-- Hotline On Call noted that former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, placed a call to Iowa-based blogger Chris Woods (corrected per comment below), a contributor at MyDD. Warner reportedly took that step before contacting Iowa's well-known political writers. Fellow MyDD blogger Matt Stoller proclaimed Bowers a "kingmaker" for his newfound notoriety.

-- A Senate candidate has taken his campaign to the MySpace social-networking service. A mayoral candidate in New Orleans, meanwhile, found herself in trouble over a manufactured photo on her campaign site, according to 13th Floor.

-- Stoller took a half-dozen fellow Democrats to task for voting against what he considers strong language to ensure "network neutrality," a term that refers to equal treatment for content delivered over high-speed Internet services. Those six House members "took a sledgehammer to the Internet," Stoller said. It was the first of his two shots at people in his own party over the issue. The second one blasted former White House press secretary Mike McCurry. Are we seeing the makings of a blog swarm on net neutrality?

-- Michelle Malkin touted the "Send A Brick" to Congress campaign being run by a citizens' group that opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants. Add that to last week's blog bit about a blogger's delivery of "rubber stamps" to a senator, and I'd say lawmakers are getting some strange deliveries these days. I wonder how tough it is to get bricks and rubber stamps through the tighter security on Capitol Hill.

-- Carol Darr of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet was featured in another article and online chat about new campaign finance rules for the Internet. Neither Duncan Black of Eschaton nor Adam Bonin of Daily Kos were impressed. (I interviewed Darr for my column on the same topic about two weeks ago.)

-- Two House lawmakers who recently returned from a trip to Iraq reported on their journey in a blog call this week. Human Events Online, A Soldier's Perspective and Suitably Flip wrote entries after the call.

-- Steve Clemons of The Washington Note recapped a dinner session with John Bellinger, the lawyer for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

-- The Counterterrorism Blog has a new look and a new partner. Milblogger Bill Roggio of The Fourth Rail is now a co-editor of the publication. Blog founder Andrew Cochran explained the changes this week.

-- The ever-entrepreneurial Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo has a new project in the works: a publication to provide thorough coverage of 30 to 40 congressional races "that seem genuinely in play." What will his fellow Democratic bloggers who believe every district should be considered competitive think about one of their own deeming just a handful of races worthy of attention?

-- Armando, a regular contributor at Daily Kos, doesn't walk in the same circles as Josh Trevino, one of the founders of RedState. But the two have decided to square off at a new blog called Swords Crossed. Armando shared his thoughts on the new venture.

-- The Washington Post published a critical look at liberal bloggers. Liberal bloggers reacted predictably, labeling it a "hit piece" and "payback" for liberal bloggers who criticized the paper.

-- The word from the latest "State Of The Blogosphere" report: There are now 35.3 million blogs, with the number still doubling about every six months.

Posted by | 07:15 AM

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Comments

Sorry, but it was me, Chris Woods, who Gov. Warner talked to. Chris Bowers is based out of Philly, I believe, though I would consider him a kingmaker over me.

Chris Woods | 04.21.06 06:42 PM

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