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Friday Festival Of Blog Bits

Patrick Hynes, who made a name with himself online with the Crush Kerry blog in 2004 and at Ankle Biting Pundits after that, has had a rough couple of months in the blogosphere.

First he was exposed as a hypocrite in July when he insinuated unethical behavior by Democratic political bloggers even as he was engaged in some questionable actions of his own in his undisclosed role as a blog adviser for the political action committee of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Now Hynes is under fire again by a blogger upset over his connection to The Channel Changer blog, which is focused on telecommunications reform efforts.

Hynes was actively posting at The Channel Changer earlier this year. In fact, that is the forum he used to suggest impropriety by blogger Matt Stoller of MyDD in relation to the debate over "network neutrality" on the Internet.

After his troubles in the summer, however, Hynes apparently quit blogging at The Channel Changer and let someone else take over for him. Now a blog called Borderline has discovered The Channel Changer and has made all manner of accusations against Hynes. The Consumerist, Craig Newmark of the online classifieds site Craigslist, and Universal Hub have commented as well.

Hynes responded with a post of his own at The Channel Changer. "Well, I've pretty much quit blogging and I haven't posted here for almost two months. ... But the idea that I am 'secretly' behind this blog is absurd, as I have never presented this blog as anything but my own," he wrote. "The bottom line is, I've got too much going on -- business to run, a book to sell, baby coming in two weeks -- so I'm basically taking a break from blogging."

Here are the rest of this week's blog bits:

-- Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., met with a few bloggers. You can get the scoop at The Ballot Box, ShopFloor and TimChapman.com (here and here).

Various House Republicans, including Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, also held a session with bloggers later in the week, as did Michigan Senate candidate Mike Bouchard, a Republican. Tim Chapman of the Heritage Foundation was at the House event, and The Ballot Box has a report on the Bouchard meeting.

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson began a guest-blogging stint at MyDD this week and will post there periodically between now and the Nov. 7 election to draw attention to various electoral contests. "Democrats and the netroots can win in 2006 and build a track record of success for years to come," Richardson wrote. "That's why I'm committed to supporting and building the progressive online infrastructure we need to win now."

-- When looking at recent poll numbers that seem to conflict, Chris Bowers of MyDD came away thinking that there are two Americas. "Our work over the next six weeks will determine which nation we will live in for years to come: the nation with the huge Democratic sweep or the nation with the extremely narrow Republican majority?"

Later in the week, he suggested one way to achieve that Democratic sweep: "Google-Bombing The Election" by creating new Web sites that are critical of candidates the netroots oppose. "If the blogosphere were to work together to Google-bomb, say, 30 key Republican districts and direct people searching for a given Republican candidate to a good Web site, blog, article or advertisement that tells the truth about that candidate," he wrote, "we could make a huge impact on the flow of information on key congressional races to voters."

-- Two local bloggers in Howard County, Md., are conducting an online candidate forum.

-- A Connecticut television station reported on mud-slinging bloggers in the House race between Republican Rep. Rob Simmons and Democratic challenger Joe Courtney. The station reported that one of the bloggers in question, Tom Misenti, is a campaign volunteer for Simmons.

-- Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos wants people to believe that he's not the leader of any movement, that the netroots are all about the people. But for a guy who says the movement isn't about him, he loves to play the role of the general rallying his troops when they sound defeatist. The latest example is a post titled "There's A Reason This Is A 'Long-Term Movement.'"

-- The Canadian military is not too keen on blogging by soldiers. "The country's top soldier, Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, has ordered ordinary Joes in uniform to check with their superiors before posting information on the Internet," according to the Globe and Mail.

-- From a Financial Times article headlined "Apostles Of The Blogosphere": Many politicians in America and elsewhere clearly feel the need to pay their respects to the blogosphere -- if only as a precaution. It is not self-evident, however, that the blogosphere's influence on politics is all for the good. A political consultant once complained that his bosses' reliance on focus groups handed power to people who were prepared to sit around for hours talking about politics with strangers, in return for a free sandwich. Similarly, if politics is increasingly shaped by the blogosphere, it will mean more power and influence for a subsection of the population willing to waste hours trawling through dross on the Internet."

-- Jim Geraghty took a critical look at the win-loss political record of the netroots in a column for The Washington Times. David Sirota, who works for netroots favorite Ned Lamont, the Democratic Senate nominee in Connecticut, was unimpressed by Geraghty's logic.

-- Bull Moose invented a holiday: "Hug A Nutrooter Day." The occasion: Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut has a 10-point edge over Lamont, according to a new poll, and the bull thinks the netroots are sure to be downtrodden by the news.

-- Pajamas Media hosted a discussion about partisanship at the National Press Club on Tuesday, and a few bloggers were on the panel. Paul Mirengoff of Power Line and Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics shared their thoughts online after the roundtable. See more post-event thoughts at Hit and Run, INDCJournal, OxBlog and Townhall.

-- The question at the Pajamas Media session was "How partisan is too partisan?" Maybe when two guys in the same party -- Democrats Dan Gerstein and David Sirota, a blogger -- behave like children toward each other.

-- RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky, who does blog outreach work for Edelman, and Ben Popken of The Consumerist also have been bickering. The subject: Krempasky's "off the record" work for Wal-Mart. Potamac Flacks has the story. Wal-Mart's outreach to bloggers has sparked controversy before.

-- In the summer, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., had the "macaca" problem; last week, he had the Jewish heritage problem; this week, he has the n-word problem (see the Allen campaign's response here). Slate pulls all the controversies together (and perhaps ones yet to come) in the new "George Allen Insult Generator."

-- Allen might have avoided much of the controversy plaguing his campaign had he not uttered the word "macaca" in response to a volunteer for his opponent who was videotaping Allen's events. Robert Bluey of The Ballot Box thinks Allen could have benefited from a few enterprising college Republicans to handle that whole situation instead.

-- Reporter/blogger Will Bunch let his one-time role model David Broder of The Washington Post know that he isn't too thrilled by Broder's recent columns that dismissively lumped millions of angry Americans into the same category as bloggers.

-- Have you ever wondered what members of Congress do all day? Keep wondering -- but do it on videotape and you might just win $5,000 courtesy of the Sunlight Network. All you have to do is enter the "Congress In 30 Seconds" contest that is running for the next few weeks.

Posted by Danny | 07:07 AM

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