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November 30, 2006Blog Bits
-- The 2006 election is yesterday's news. For a look at what may be to come in 2008, check out the 2008 Race Tracker, a collaborative "wiki" community where bloggers and other can share their insights into House, Senate and gubernatorial races. The effort is sponsored by the liberal blog Swing State Project.
-- When outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., decided not to run for president in 2008, he announced it first on the blog of his political action committee, Volunteer PAC. He also posted a similar entry at Congress Blog.
-- From Hotline TV: Who Will The Netroots Back in '08?. Plus reaction from Matt Stoller of MyDD.
-- Stoller will be among the high-profile bloggers attending RootsCamp DC this weekend. The event is sponsored by Issue Dynamics Inc., a Democratic public affairs group that has a "blogger relations" department and blog. IDI also hosted a Beltway Blogger Boot Camp at the National Press Club earlier this month.
-- If that's not enough to whet your appetite for blogging and elections, check out the webcast from a New York event on the same topic held earlier this week. It's available on the home page of the Museum of Television and Radio.
-- Ed Kilgore has reduced his committment to the Democratic Leadership Council to part-time work. As a result, he will take his New Donkey blog solo.
-- Stoller and other writers at MyDD were the news peg for a NewAssignment.Net blog post about reader-funded journalism.
-- Any bloggers hoping to embed with U.S. troops in Iraq (or elsewhere) might want to follow the example of Bill Roggio of The Fourth Rail: Establish a nonprofit and apply for credentials under it.
-- The Washington-based trade group for alternative newsweeklies like Village Voice is seeking a blogger/editor/reporter. The job pays $40,000 to $45,000.
-- House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is no friend of the Club For Growth, and that means its members may have trouble grasping the free-market impact of her lingo. Never fear, club blogger Andy Roth is here with the just launched Pelosi Translator.
-- From Ezra Klein: "One interesting element of the blogspheric, YouTube age is the reordering of incentives for television appearances. ... Suddenly, picking the fight has become a surer way to notoriety and name recognition than playing nice in hopes of an invitation back. And that's been a decidedly healthy shift."
Is this really a good development for the political world? Might this desire to pick a fight as the path to notoriety and name recognition explain why The Moderate Voice isn't sounding all that moderate to some folks anymore?
Posted by Danny at 11:53 AM | Comments (8)
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Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces recently released a report on bloggin in Asia. Here are some of the highlights:
-- After a desire to share photographs and news with family and friends, the growth of blogging in Asia is driven by a desire for "self-expression," Fifty percent of those surveyed cited their desires to have a platform for airing their views on socio-economic trends, culture and world events as the motivation for starting their blogs.
-- That is especially true in Singapore, where 81 percent of bloggers use the medium to express themselves and 47 percent write about their thoughts on the world.
-- "The long tail that currently characterizes the blogosphere creates a new dynamic and gives countless solitary voices on the Internet influence in a way they never had before. Already, we have seen, from Taiwan to India, the local blogosphere is starting to occupy a more influential role. As this trend continues, bloggers will become a more powerful voice and play an increasingly important part in shaping opinions in Asia."
-- In India, 11 percent of bloggers are attracted to the blogosphere because they want to be "citizen journalists" who cover public affairs. That figure compares with 2 percent to 3 percent for the rest of Asia.
-- Koreans have more trust in the blogosphere than people in other Asian nations. Nearly 80 percent of the population falls into either the categories of those who "moderately trust" or "totally trust" blogs.
Posted by Danny at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
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As noted this morning in National Journal's Technology Daily:
A prosecutor in Virginia has decided not to bring charges against supporters of Sen. George Allen who wrestled a Democratic activist to the ground at one of Allen's campaign events last month.
The Washington Post reports that Commonwealth's Attorney Warner Chapman recommended on Tuesday that police take no further action in the case.
Mike Stark, a liberal blogger and activist, was shoved to the ground last month by Allen supporters after he aggressively approached the Republican senator and screamed questions about his first wife.
Stark said after the incident that he intended to press assault charges. In a statement, Chapman said "the balance of evidence reflects that no one sought to hurt anyone."
Stark acknowledged the news at his blog Calling All Wingnuts. He did not comment on the decision there but offered this take on his diary at Daily Kos: "I've got to believe that the detective interviewed witnesses. Ask yourself: Who were these witnesses? Well, the answer, of course, is that almost every one of them were the type of person that would take time off work to attend a George Allen campaign event."
One reader at Calling All Wingnuts said: "Looks like your 15 minutes [in the spotlight] are up, Mike. What's next on the agenda?" But another noted that regardless of whether charges were filed, the episode was politically significant in exposing Allen as "a guy that culivates thuggery."
"In general, Virginians don't like such unpleasantry, but in this case, your heat brought much light. Well done."
Posted by Danny at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
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Rep. Hastings Will Not Chair Intelligence Panel
From an e-mail alert just sent by CongressDaily:
After meeting with House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi this afternoon, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., issued a statement confirming he will not serve as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee."I have been informed by the Speaker-elect that I will not serve as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 110th Congress," he said. "I am obviously disappointed with this decision."
Hastings won election to Congress in 1992, after having been impeached and removed from office as a federal judge. He concluded his statement by saying, "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."
Bloggers who opposed his ascendancy to the chairmanship no doubt will be pleased.
Posted by Danny at 03:43 PM | Comments (3)
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The Project for Excellence in Journalism yesterday released a report that recaps the coverage of Election Night 2006 by various media outlets, and bloggers merited some attention. The project reviewed the coverage of six stand-alone blogs, among other media, for the study.
The lead sentence encompasses the gist of the analysis: "For the blogosphere, a fairly smooth Election Night made things something of a disappointment."
Here are the other blog-related excerpts from the report:
-- "[A]fter emerging in 2004, the blogosphere represented a cohort of the media spectrum this year significant enough that one of the cable channels [CNN] gathered up a group of bloggers to put on TV -- a plan that would prove vulnerable to technical failure."
-- "When the system works -- voting occurs without widespread problems and the media establishment isn’t faltering -- citizen sentinels, bloggers and other observers, while potentially important watchdogs, have a more restricted role."
-- "Despite the intrigue they brought to the problems and media mishaps of the 2004 election, bloggers were caught somewhat empty-handed by the relatively error-free election of 2006. Some, such as Wonkette, got downright cranky that no one was leaking examples of fraud and abuse. Others just got nasty about who was winning and losing. The blogs, in the end, leaned toward opinion this night [rather] than information."
Posted by Danny at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
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A Dollar For Your Sarcasm
The United States is about to embark on another run of circulating commemorative coinage.
As the run of the 50-state quarters program nears its end in 2008, the U.S. Mint this week gave consumers a glimpse of the similarly rotating $1 coins that will start appearing in banks (and hopefully in people's change) in February. Each coin will feature a U.S. president.
You might not think that kind of news would grab the attention of political bloggers. But America's storied history with dollar coins, especially the Dwight D. Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea issues of the modern era, apparently is worthy of the kind of ridicule that so many bloggers love.
Here's what three of them had to say:
-- Eschaton: "I don't care how many hot and sexy ex-presidents they put on the dollar coin, people will still think they're post office tokens until you get rid of the bill. Oh, and what's up with the penny? Get rid of that, too."
-- Political Animal: "I can hardly wait for 2012, which will feature the dynamic quartet of Chester Alan Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and then a reprise of Grover Cleveland. Good times!"
-- The Reality-Based Community: "The whole story reminds me a little of the joke about the British plan to switch to righthand traffic, under which the new rules would only apply to professional drivers (buses and trucks) for the first week, while cars would make the changeover later."
And if you want to know why it's a bad idea, economically speaking to keep the penny in circulation (and the nickel, too, at least for the time being), check out Coinflation. The site tracks the value of the metals used to create U.S. coinage, and both the penny and the nickel currently cost more to manufacuture than they are worth in face value.
On the upside, the Benjamin Franklin half-dollar I recently found in circulation is worth nearly $4.75 because of the silver used to make it. Woo hoo!
UPDATE: Kim Priestap of Wizbang is bothered by the forthcoming $1 coins, too, but for a different reason than the aforementioned Democratic bloggers. She cited the decision to move the phrase "In God We Trust" to the side of the coins as evidence that "the secular-progressives are gaining more inroads into eliminating God from our country's history."
Posted by Danny at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
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To voters in Florida's 23rd District, Democrat Alcee Hastings is their representative in the House. They first elected him by 59 percent of the vote in 1992 and subsequently have returned him to Congress by margins ranging from 73 percent to 100 percent. He was just re-elected to an eighth term without opposition.
But to much of the rest of the world, and especially to bloggers, Hastings is, as the lead sentence of his biography says in the "Almanac of American Politics," "the only member of Congress ever to have been impeached and removed from office as a federal judge."
The Almanac goes on to say this about his past: "Hastings was charged with conspiring with a friend to take a $150,000 bribe and give two convicted swindlers light sentences. A Miami jury acquitted Hastings in 1983, but the friend was convicted. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals called for impeachment in 1987 and referred the case to Congress. Hastings was impeached by the House by a vote of 413-3 and convicted by the Senate, 69-26."
Hastings' history as a judge is significant now because he is being considered for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. Jane Harman of California has been the top Democrat on that panel in recent years, but Democrats regained control of the chamber in the Nov. 7 election and later elected Nancy Pelosi as the next House Speaker.
Pelosi reportedly is not fond of Harman, even though both are from California, and is not eager to elevate her to the Intelligence chairmanship. Despite his impeachment and removal from the judgeship, Hastings has the important backing of the Congressional Black Caucus to be named chairman instead.
The prospect of Hastings becoming chairman has prompted plenty of complaints in the blogosphere, even among Democrats. Stephen Kaus proclaimed Hastings "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" at The Huffington Post, and Justin Rood of TPMMuckraker did some thorough background reporting on the Hastings bribery case (go here, here and here).
Rood's employer, Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo, had this to say about the issue as well: "Given the centrality of intelligence work in our national policy debates today, the importance of secrecy in handling classified information, and how politicized and contentious intel debates have become, I don't see how you can have the chairman of the intel committee be someone about whom there is any serious question whether or not they accepted bribes as judges to subvert justice."
Marshall also suggested Rush Holt, D-N.J., as an alternative to both Harman and Hastings.
Blog criticism of Hastings has been persistent and harsh enough that he responded Nov. 20 by blasting "anonymous bloggers" in general and conservative Michelle Malkin in particular. "I hope that my fate is not determined by Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Barone, [Matt] Drudge, anonymous bloggers, and other assorted misinformed fools," he wrote in a five-page letter to House Democratic colleagues.
The letter may have done more harm than good to Hastings' cause, however, because Malkin answered in kind with a post that labeled Hastings a "fool" and his letter to colleagues an "unhinged rant." She included plenty of background links on the Hastings bribery case and current criticisms of his leadership bid.
"It isn't just right-wingers objecting to the possibility of a convicted judge for sale chairing the House Intelligence Committee," she wrote. "In peacetime, Washington can chalk up Hastings' resurrection to business as usual. In wartime, Washington has no business doing business as usual."
Posted by Danny at 12:10 PM | Comments (8)
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Digital Cameras: Instapundit Has The Answers
When it comes to photography, I'm a bit old-fashioned. I like my Minolta X-370, the 35mm SLR I've been using since I bought it after high-school graduation. I've gotten nearly 20 good years out of that camera and had to repair it only once, and I expect to get many more years of use from it.
I used it as a freelance photographer at West Virginia University football games in the late 1980s. I've snapped photos of presidents (Ronald Reagan), vice presidents (George H.W. Bush, Dan Quayle) and governors (West Virginia's Gaston Caperton, even while skiing). I've also hauled the camera safely to and from three foreign countries -- Canada (it counts as a foreign country 'cause I went to Quebec), Guatemala and Russia. And I've burned through rolls of film to capture memories of vacations, nature, and family and friends, especially our three beautiful children.
Now that I'm the editor of Technology Daily, though, I suppose it's about time I move into the digital era. After all, my father already is on his second digital camera -- and because it's more convenient to use, he takes a lot more pictures of our children than we do.
But when my wife, Kimberly, suggested that we take the digital plunge in time for this year's holiday season, I was a bit intimidated. I know zilch about digital cameras, and the abundance of options made me wary of buying anything for fear that I would buy the worst of the bunch.
Then I remembered: The blogosphere is the answer to everything -- and in the case of digital cameras, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds is the man. I shot him an e-mail a few days ago to ask his advice. In true Instapundit fashion, he answered me online with a "carnival" of digital cameras.
I'm now a much better informed consumer, and you can be, too, if you read his entry and follow the many helpful links he included. Thanks for the guidance, Glenn.
The downside is that now Kimberly is so eager to get a camera that it looks like I'll have to do something I managed to avoid the first 40 years of my life -- shop on the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest day of the year!
By the way, happy Thanksgiving to all!
UPDATE: We braved the "Black Friday" swarm at Best Buy and bought a Canon Powershot A630. A shopping tip when shopping for cameras (and other goods) Best Buy: Check the company's Web site for discounts first and then go to an actual store if you want to see how the cameras feel before picking one. Our local store matched the online sales price, saving us 15 percent on the camera.
Posted by Danny at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
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No one on the Internet was more loyal to Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in his bitter re-election fight this year that Marshall Wittmann, and now Lieberman has returned the favor by hiring the Bull Moose as his communications director.
The formalizing of the relationship between Lieberman and Wittmann is not surprising. Wittmann hinted in a final post at his blog last week that he would re-emerge in a way that would not comfort the Democratic bloggers who had worked so hard to unseat Lieberman, a member of their own party until Ned Lamont defeated him in a primary.
But the fact that Wittmann killed his blog as a result of the move confirms what I suspected all along: that Lieberman's late-campaign blog launch was merely a superficial defensive move.
If Wittmann really wanted to embrace the interactive, transparent spirit of the blogosphere, he would have made Wittmann's continued blogging a condition of his employment. He also wouldn't have yanked his campaign blog and deleted the archives days after the race ended. I will be surprised if Wittmann or anyone else on Lieberman's staff starts a blog at his Senate Web site, but I suppose anything is possible.
Also not surprising is that lots of bloggers, especially the ones who hate both Lieberman and Wittmann, remarked on Wittmann's hiring. So did Mark Liebovich of The New York Times. Little of the commentary is flattering toward the two.
"Mr. Lieberman, a longtime Democrat of Connecticut who was re-elected as an independent and calls himself an 'Independent Democrat,' has not ruled out becoming a Republican," Liebovich wrote. "Mr. Wittmann, meanwhile, is a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between -- including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position."
Writing at The Huffington Post, Steve Clemons of The Washington Note sees in Wittmann's hiring the makings of a bipartisan presidential ticket featuring Lieberman and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Both men have run for president -- McCain in 2000 and Lieberman in 2004, not to mention Lieberman's 2000 vice-presidential candidacy -- and Wittmann has worked for both.
"Wittman is smart, and he will possibly be the midwife of a McCain-Lieberman campaign -- and rather than railing against Wittman, people need to get smart and outmaneuver those who want to steal the center away from Democrats in the next big political race," Clemons wrote.
Matt Stoller of MyDD seconded Clemons with this warning: "If we don't learn the lesson of Connecticut, which is that we must have all hands on deck to change voter impressions about a charismatic media darling with a long relationship to the electorate, then we may find ourselves with President John McCain and a new conservative Republican 'reformer' majority in the House and Senate in 2008."
But liberal bloggers, including Ezra Klein, Mark Schmitt and Matthew Yglesias, rejected the notion that Lieberman and McCain represent the center.
"In McCain's case it's clear that he's the furthest right Republican on defense and use of force issues," Yglesias said, "And as best I can tell, Lieberman holds ... the same views. ... [J]ust because mainstream Republicans and mainstream Democrats both reject something doesn't make it centrist; it could just be fringey and foolish."
Ed Kilgore of New Donkey, who has worked with Wittmann in his latest incarnation at the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, bucked the critical trend and penned some kind words about Wittmann, including these: "It's obviously the perfect gig for Marshall, and he's the perfect spokesman for Lieberman."
Meanwhile, a rather downtrodden David Sirota, who blogged for Lamont, is looking for his next job and invited readers at The Huffington Post to share their suggestions.
Posted by Danny at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
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The blogosphere would not exist as we know it if people didn't reprint and link to the words of others. But when those others say defamatory things, should bloggers be held legally accountable for spreading bad information?
The California Supreme Court says "no." In a decision announced Monday, the court ruled that Internet service providers cannot be held liable for defamatory content posted by third parties.
The case in question was not related to blogs; rather, a woman who ran an e-mail list and newsgroup about breast cancer was sued for posting a man's letter that was critical of a doctor. But MSNBC reports that free-speech advocates had warned that a ruling against the e-mail and newsgroup publisher could have impacted blogs and other online forums, too.
The court ruled unananimously that current federal law gives broad protection to online publishers. "Congress contemplated self-regulation, rather than regulation compelled at the sword point of tort liability," the judges said in overturning a 2003 decision against the publisher. "It chose to protect even the most active Internet publishers, those who take an aggressive role in republishing third party content."
The court hinted that perhaps the governing federal law should be changed. "We acknowledge that recognizing broad immunity for defamatory republications on the Internet has some troubling consequences." But the judges added that Congress will have to intervene, and until then, "plaintiffs who contend they were defamed in an Internet posting may only seek recovery from the original source of the statement."
Blogger Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media praised the ruling. "This is an absolutely crucial decision," he wrote, "and it will reverberate for years to come."
The San Francisco Chronicle also reported on the decision, and Deep Links, the blog of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, praised the ruling.
UPDATE: The list of blogs that have praised the California court's ruling include Crooks and Liars, Instapundit, Patterico's Pontifications, TalkLeft and Wizbang. But Michelle Malkin offered a dissenting voice.
"Perhaps because I have a foot in both the MSM and blog worlds and have been the target of defamation, I don't see the ruling in quite the same positive light," she wrote. "Why should online speech be held to a different standard than other speech? ... But aren't bloggers the ones arguing that we should be treated like MSM journalists? Isn't that what the Apple vs. bloggers case was all about? Remember? Seems to me that some bloggers want to enjoy the benefits of MSM status (fighting for the same coverage as traditional journalists under shield laws, as in the Apple case), but avoid the consequences (getting sued if they republish defamatory material online)."
The decision also prompted Nichole Altmix to blog about "The Legal Dos and Do Nots Of Networked Journalism" at NewAssignment, a citizen media site, and The Volokh Conspiracy offered a legal analysis.
Posted by Danny at 02:31 PM | Comments (2)
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Prominent Blogger Is Banned By YouTube
The YouTube video-sharing site has "permanently closed" the account of John Aravosis, who writes at Americablog. It took the action because of content Aravosis had posted from Comedy Central.
Aravosis blasted the decision as misguided, even if YouTube and its new parent company, Google, have legal standing to take such actions. YouTube rose to the kind of prominence that prompted Google to buy it in part because bloggers like Aravosis have been using the service in ways that have tested the bounds of copyright law -- and the willingness of content owners to allow it to happen.
"Google and YouTube may -- and I say 'may' -- have a valid legal argument about anyone posting videos that are longer than, say, 30 seconds," he wrote. "But Google and YouTube need to think about the service they are and the service they will be after they institute this new draconian clamp-down."
YouTube's decision clearly incited Aravosis' wrath. In a subsequent post, he suggested that his readers try other video-sharing sites. He also vowed to play watchdog by checking for copyright violations at YouTube and suggested that about 50 percent of the content on the service fits into that category.
Aravosis isn't the first blogger to get on YouTube's bad side. On the right side of the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin had a video banned at YouTube for alleged "inappropriate content." She's now leading a "Banned by YouTube" counter movement, logo and all.
Prominent technology blogger Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also received a cease-and-desist letter from YouTube earlier this month for allegedly violating YouTube's intellectual property rights. Malkin's response to YouTube: "Pot. Kettle. Black."
Posted by Danny at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
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What's A Blog? Something For Losers
That's the gist of the conversation I just heard on the CBS drama "NCIS."
A young woman in the episode complained about being trashed on a blog, and Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the unhip and uninformed lead character played by Mark Harmon, responded quizically. "Blog? What's a blog?"
Her answer: "It’s something losers put online so that everyone can read."
There you have it.
Posted by Danny at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)
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Democrat Ned Lamont lost his Senate bid in Connecticut two weeks ago, and now the bloggers who helped lead him to defeat are bickering over who deserves the most credit. You gotta love the blogosphere.
The Lamont Internet team chose as their online battleground the comments section of Daily Kos, and the post that started it all had nothing to do with Lamont. It was a guest entry by former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and his wife, Elizabeth, who decided to spend some time on the site to answer questions from readers and "to thank you for everything you did to make Election Day a historic victory for Democrats all across the country."
The Blogometer has a full report on that underlying conversation, but the inside-the-blogosphere spat was far more entertaining. It offered a rare and unflattering glimpse into the online players of one of this year's most high-profile campaigns -- a glimpse that one Daily Kos commenter lamented as "an unedifying display of unpleasantness and rampant egomania."
The main characters in that parade of egomania were: Aldon Hynes, the former technology coordinator to Lamont; Charles Monaco, who wrote the independent LamontBlog much of the year and officially joining Lamont's campaign in September; Matt Stoller of MyDD, who made trips to Connecticut on Lamont's behalf at various points this year; and Tim Tagaris, Lamont's Internet director. (Stoller introduced Lamont to Tagaris, according to an article at The Nation.)
Hynes triggered the verbal warfare by daring to thank Edwards for his participation in the Lamont campaign. Monaco and Stoller challenged Hynes' perception about Edwards, and then, as often happens in the comment sections of blogs like Daily Kos, the conversation quickly deteriorated into personal attacks by the principals and observers of the battle.
Here's a sample of the back-and-forth for your reading pleasure:
Hynes: "I think a bigger issue is the lack of respect and gratitude that some Lamont supporters have shown to other Lamont supporters for not supporting Lamont 'their way'."
Stoller: "All I can say is that the blogger side of the operation that you were in charge of just wasn't working until Tim took over for you. The difference between you and someone who is credible is that you were in Connecticut for a magical moment, where Tim actually helped create that magical moment."
Hynes: "Matt, stop the personal attacks, especially since they don't bear correspondence to what what was going on."
Tagaris: "I just want people who don't speak for the campaign to stop doing so. And no, Aldon does not speak for the campaign. His attempts to do so here, all over the Internet, and classrooms across CT are demeaning to those of you who busted your asses for nine months straight."
CTcrescent: "Unlike Aldon, Tim Tagaris is not a shameless self-promoter who takes credit for other people's work. Tagaris is a thousand times more talented than Aldon. ... Aldon just likes brag and hear himself talk while others do the hard work."
Philgoblue: "Did you read the infamous Tagaris 'What Really Happened' diary? He didn't even have a disclaimer that he wasn't speaking for the campaign."
Monaco: "It's obvious you have an interest in making your opinion the one most closely associated with the Lamont campaign in the blogosphere, even though it's a lonely one. Otherwise, you would have just signed your post 'Aldon,' the way you seem to usually do."
Kim Hynes (Aldon's wife): "Aldon was not as high profile as the campaign bloggers, but you might ask Ned, or Annie, or the finance team, or anyone with a reconfigured laptop, or any of the offices, or ... They would have a decidedly different view."
NewDem: "Stoller's jumped the shark on this Lieberman thing. Get over it. It sucks that Lamont lost, but you need to pull yourself together and stop with the constant recrimations."
Posted by Danny at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
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Sharon McLoone, my boss for the past six years and the last original staff member of the Technology Daily team here at National Journal, has decided not to return to work after her recent maternity leave. As a result, I have been promoted to the editorship of Tech Daily.
The promotion will have some impact on Beltway Blogroll, just because of the time demands of the new job. I won't be giving up the blog -- as if I could! -- but I will be curtailing some of the regular content.
As much as I like writing the Friday Festival Of Blog Bits to recap the week's highlights from the blogosphere, it has to go. The weekly roundup just takes too much of my time from the family on Thursday evenings. I'll probably still write occasional link-heavy roundup entries, and perhaps more of them during the week, but the weekly format just proved to be too demanding.
I also have discontinued the column about the policy and political impact of blogs that I have written every other week for more than a year. I have done that work on weekends, and I'm determined to give my wife and children more attention when I'm not at the office. My children deserve more time sitting in my lap than some machine built by Dell.
Yes, that's right ... wait for it ... here it comes ... I want to spend more time with my family.
I still enjoy the work I do here. The time I spend in the blogosphere and writing about it also generates regular story ideas for Tech Daily, so it has become an extension of my full-time job to some extent. I may even be blogging more because I'll be doing less of the formal writing that has consumed so much of my free time.
All of which is to say, please keep Beltway Blogroll on your reading list.
Posted by Danny at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
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Consumers Union Enters The Blogosphere
Thanks to an e-mail forwarded by a colleague last week, I just learned that Consumers Union has a series of issue-focused blogs.
The watchdog group has put online the following blogs: Financial Privacy Now; Not In My Food, which is part of an educational campaign about food safety risks; Now Hear This, a forum for airing ideas about media and telecommunications reform; and Prescription For Change, whose goal is safe, effective and affordable medicines.
Prescription For Change was first out of the gate in September. The other blogs have been in the game since last month. I'll add all of them to the blogroll shortly.
Posted by Danny at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
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Plans to change the rules governing legal advertising in New York could hinder the online free speech of lawyers on blogs and other outlets, according to advocacy groups opposed to the changes.
The American Civil Liberties Union, its New York branch and Public Citizen last week filed comments in opposition to the proposed rules. The goal of the rules is to protect citizens from false and misleading lawyer ads, but the groups said the planned changes, including the demand for paper records, are too broad.
"Given the broad definition of advertising and solicitation," the comments said, "these requirements would apply to the Web pages of nonprofit organizations employing attorneys, legal blogs, and even an attorney's personal home page." The groups added that because blawgs "are typically updated multiple times every day and, in some cases, multiple times every hour," the record-keeping requirements would impose a needless paper burden and "undermine one of the key advantages of the Web -- the ease of updating information."
"A literal reading of these rules would classify legal blogs and magazine articles as lawyer advertisements," Greg Beck, an attorney for Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Even if these changes are not enforced, they would have a chilling effect on Internet free speech as lawyers decide not to risk running afoul of the rules and facing disciplinary proceedings."
Posted by Danny at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
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"Make no mistake, without the netroots, Webb would not have won. He may not even have been close."
Believe it or not, those are the words of Jon Henke, the QandO blogger hired as the new media adviser and campaign blogger to Sen. George Allen, R-Va. Unfortunately for Allen, that move came too late to matter in the freshman senator's failed re-election campaign against Democrat James Webb, and Henke's nod to the other side of the blogosphere is significant.
Most political bloggers are loathe to say anything the least bit flattering about their online enemies, and Republican bloggers in particular have gleefully ridiculed the netroots for always backing losers and doing more to hurt the Democratic Party than help it. But this year, Henke is willing to give the netroots credit where due.
"In an opportunity cost sense, the leftosphere was very effective in this election cycle," Henke wrote after seeing a blurb in Time about the netroots.
"They didn't win every race, but they made significant contributions to individual races (Webb in Virginia, Tester in Montana), to the national anti-Republican mood, and to the media climate. Most of their successes won't be readily apparent to the general public (that was certainly true in my own campaign experience), while other successes are subtle and loosely connected -- e.g., the media is frequently captured by narratives established in the blogs."
Specifically, Henke praised the Virginia blogs Not Larry Sabato and Raising Kaine. "Though there were aspects of their efforts with which I had real problems, there is no denying that their efforts to (a) generate local and national attention, (b) develop the narratives early and (c) sell Webb carefully were tremendously effective."
So have Republicans learned from that example. Not yet, Henke said, but like John Hawkins of Right Wing News, Henke sees an opportunity for the GOP now that it is out of power.
"The leftosphere has been effective because of Democratic engagement (both official and surrogate) and the unifying effect of minority status. Republicans have a similar chance now," Henke said. "If they accept the existence of the new media and develop a holistic, long-term strategy, they can still retake the battlefield."
UPDATE: Henke's post prompted a response from Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters. "One point cannot be easily dismissed, and that was the power of the blogs on the left to organize," he wrote. "We tried something similar on the right, but we started too late to have much of an impact. I think many of us felt more comfortable in providing analysis rather than engaging in a more participatory fashion."
Other Republican bloggers also are tipping their hats to the netroots. The Blogometer has more coverage.
And if you're really into the whole netroots phenomenon, check out the "On Language" column by William Safire in The New York Times over the weekend. He explains the origins of the word.
Posted by Danny at 01:00 AM | Comments (0)
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CapitolLink: Victory Laps In The Blogosphere
Candidates for congressional leadership positions spent more time than usual in the blogosphere this week as they trolled for support in their intraparty battles. Now that the contests have been decided, the winners are taking victory laps in the blogosphere.
House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has posted entries at Congress Blog and The Huffington Post over the past two days.
Her Congress Blog post focused on Democratic Party unity in the House after she endorsed John Murtha of Pennsylvania for majority leader and his opponent, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, ended up winning. "We've had our differences in our party. We have now come together," Pelosi wrote. At HuffPo, she emphasized her top priority: ending the war in Iraq.
Back at Congress Blog, Minority Whip-elect Roy Blunt, R-Mo., went online soon after his victory over John Shadegg of Arizona to warn Democrats that Republicans will hold the new majority accountable. "For twelve years," he wrote, "the Democrats have gotten away without leading, without offering an agenda, and without saying what they're actually for. Now they will be forced to govern."
Some losers in the leadership races, meanwhile, are making concession appearances online. Indianan Mike Pence, who lost the race for House Republican leader to John Boehner of Ohio, posted a short note at Congress Blog.
Bloggers themselves did not have much influence in this week's leadership races, as evidenced by the outcomes for House majority leader, the House minority offices and Senate majority leader. But the fact that the leaders of the 110th Congress spent so much time online before the vote and have continued their presence since is a testament to just how much influence lawmakers think bloggers have.
Posted by Danny at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to graduate journalism school at City University of New York for a project designed to keep bloggers out of court.
The school will use the money to develop an online guide for educating bloggers about issues like libel, privacy and copyright law. The guide will encompass a top 10 list of rules for avoiding legal trouble, with in-depth material buttressing each basic rule.
"If this grant helps keep just one blogger out of court for reporting the news," said Gary Kebbel, the foundation's journalism program officer, "it served its purpose."
The grant was awarded two days after a federal appeals court in California rejected a blogger's request for a rehearing of the decision to put him in jail for refusing to share a video of protestors with police. The blogger, Josh Wolf, has been in jail for three months and could stay there until next July.
The guide might not be too useful in that kind of free-speech case, which has more to do with the government's ignorance of new media than bloggers' ignorance of the law. But bloggers have found themselves in legal trouble for other reasons this year.
Last month, a Florida court awarded $11.3 million to a woman over defamatory blog posts about her, and another defamation case in Florida pits a blogger against a religious publisher. And an advertising firm dropped a lawsuit against a Maine blogger that it had targeted because of his critical comments about the company.
The list of cases keeps growing. Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine, a teacher at CUNY who will contribute to the online guide, pointed his readers to a summary of blog-related cases kept by the Media Research Center.
Jarvis also praised the involvement of the Media Bloggers Association (of which I am a member) and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. "We need all the help we can get to assure not only that bloggers stay out of court but that we all maintain our free speech, free of suit and harassment," Jarvis said.
Posted by Danny at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
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From a Time magazine piece on five myths about last week's election results:
MYTH: Joe Lieberman's victory proves the netroots don't matter. REALITY: The netroots had some key victories.Liberal bloggers and their readers helped to swing the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont, raising expectations that the midterms would turn this new generation of online activists into kingmakers. Yet in the midst of a Democratic wave, the netroots candidates failed to sweep, causing some pundits to claim that the netroots' influence continues to be overstated.
... What's the real takeaway? Of the 19 candidates that three of the biggest liberal blogs (Daily Kos, MyDD and Swing State Project) raised money for, eight of the candidates won. This improves on the blogs' record from 2004, when Daily Kos picked out 16 campaigns to strongly support and raise money for, all of which lost.
This cycle, bloggers may have been most strongly linked to Lamont, but they actually donated more money to Jim Webb of Virginia. Bloggers also made 'macaca' into a scandal that helped sink Webb's opponent, George Allen.
The netroots' record is probably too short to be judged definitively, but instead of looking at pure win/loss records, an examination of where the netroots put their emphasis suggests that the online community is either becoming more sophisticated in picking its candidates or is helping push longshots over the top.
Posted by Danny at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
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The netroots won't have Bull Moose Marshall Wittmann to kick around any more. Wittmann announced in an entry this morning that he is leaving cyberspace while savoring the sweet taste of political victory.
"The Moose is leaving the blogosphere with the deep satisfaction that in a small way he was part of this historic and monumental victory for the vital center," Wittmann wrote of his online cheerleading for Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut over the past year. "The Moose has attempted to give voice to the immoderate moderates that are often not represented by either the donkey or by the elephant. In the proud tradition of [Theodore Roosevelt], the Moose has defied the reigning orthodoxies of the two parties."
As chronicled here periodically, leading liberal bloggers have shown great contempt for the politics of moderation that Wittmann preaches, and he has been just as antagonistic toward the netroots. But Wittmann apparently has had his fill of the battles in blog land.
He hinted, however, that his offline wanderings may be temporary. "[T]he nutroots and their ilk should not take solace in the departure of the Moose," Wittmann wrote. "The Moose will surely re-emerge again. When and where will the Moose be spotted? The Moose works in mysterious ways."
On the other hand, the whereabouts of Tim Tagaris, one of Wittmann's blog enemies in Lieberman's successful race against fellow Democrat Ned Lamont, are not at all mysterious. He is in Louisiana playing the role of reporter/activist for the next few weeks.
His mission, funded by contributors to MyDD, is to cover the run-off election between Rep. William Jefferson and fellow Democrat Karen Carter. MyDD has endorsed Carter. "[T]here are two other important themes that Tim is going to cover when he's down there," MyDD's Matt Stoller wrote. "One is race, which is inescapable in Louisiana and in this election. The second is [Hurricane] Katrina, which is also inescapable in this election."
Before he made the trek to New Orleans, Tagaris, who worked as Lamont's Internet director, shared his insights on the Connecticut Senate race in a diary entry at Daily Kos. His inside look at the campaign followed by a few days the one penned by blogger David Sirota, who officially joined Lamont's team late in the battle.
Posted by Danny at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
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This was a busy week for bloggers and the potential leaders of the new Republican minority in Congress. Lawmakers in search of online support in House leadership elections that go to a vote today held conference calls with bloggers beforehand, and at least one senator held a call after he was elected.
Who participated and what did they have to say? The Truth Laid Bear has the answer in a roundup of transcripts and audio, and here are more links:
-- Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, a candidate for House GOP Conference chair (a report at Extreme Mortman).
-- Roy Blunt of Missouri, a candidate for House minority whip (reports at Extreme Mortman, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, The Right Angle and Townhall.
-- Mike Pence, a candidate for House majority leader (reports at Extreme Mortman, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, RedState and Right Wing News.
-- John Shadegg, a candidate for House minority whip (a report at Extreme Mortman)
-- New Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (reports at Captain's Quarters and TimChapman.com)
The conference calls were just one example of the blog activity spurred by the Republican leadership races. AmSpec Blog also has a list of bloggers who endorsed Pence's candidacy, and Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia generated plenty of buzz with a YouTube video that outlined his candidacy for GOP Conference chair.
"I'm sure this is the first leadership campaign to take to YouTube," said Kingston spokesblogger David All, who just returned to Washington after a stint on the unsuccessful Senate campaign of Republican Mike Bouchard in Michigan.
All of the online fuss was for naught, though. Hotline On Call is reporting that John Boehner of Ohio trounced Pence in the race for majority leader. The vote was 168-27, according to a GOP source cited by Hotline.
As I noted in a column early this year during another race for House majority leader, bloggers have a limited ability to influence leadership elections.
That truth was evident in yesterday's Democratic vote for House majority leader in the 110th Congress. Not even lawmakers who blogged about that race could convince their colleagues for vote for John Murtha of Pennsylvania over Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
It was also apparent in the election of Trent Lott of Mississippi to Senate minority whip. Bloggers across the political spectrum drove him from the Senate's top leadership spot four years ago, but they were helpless to stop him from ascending back into leadership this year. All they could do was gripe after the vote.
Posted by Danny at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)
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As reported this week in National Journal's Technology Daily
An international study has found a link between political activism and reading Web logs. The survey of blog readers by Strategy One found that nearly a quarter of the people in the United States, France and the United Kingdom read blogs at least once a week.
The Edelman public relations firm presented the results of the survey at a forum Wednesday hosted by the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Robert Moran, the research director at Strategy One, said the goal was to determine who reads political blogs and the impact the sites have on opinion leaders.
Moran estimated that 60 million U.S. adults read blogs at least once a week, and he said the perception that they are for young people is not entirely true.
While 18- to 24-year-olds are likely to read blogs more often than 25- to 34-year-olds, popularity increases again with 35- to 44-year-olds. A survey released earlier this month by the institute found that political blogs were most popular with 30- to 50-year-olds and that 9 percent of Americans read political blogs daily.
... Moran said his survey found that 49 percent of those defined as "influentials" took action as a result of something they read on a blog. The most popular actions included signing petitions, attending meetings, or writing or calling politicians.
He said that among all blog readers, 28 percent took some type of action, mostly political action, as a result of a blog posting.
Posted by Danny at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
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Washingtonian columnist Harry Jaffe:
Except in a few races, the outcome of last week’s midterm election was determined in large part by the Mainstream Media. Bloggers and Internet chatters posing as journalists were not in the game.Look at the stories and issues that shaped the election and moved the American people to cast out Republicans and put Democrats in control of Congress and you will find major news organizations and experienced journalists behind every one. ...
In time, journalists freelancing as bloggers on the Internet might have greater impact on American elections, but if last week’s voting is any indication, the political landscape is still being painted by the reporters working for major media outlets.
Posted by Danny at 06:54 AM | Comments (0)
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The SEC And Blog Disclosures
Back in early October, I mentioned in one edition of the "Friday Festival Of Blog Bits" that Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwarz thinks public companies should be able to satisfy federal disclosure mandates by putting some information on corporate blogs.
He pitched the idea in a blog entry and in a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. "We encourage you to look to the Internet to achieve the commission's objectives of greater investor access to information," Schwarz wrote in the letter.
Cox responded to Schwarz a few days before the Nov. 7 election, and I failed to mention that development.
Cox didn't state a specific position on Schwarz' suggestion, but he did note that his agency "encourages the use of Web sites as a source of information to the market and investors, and we welcome your offer to further discuss with us your views in this area." Cox added that the SEC would need to know "whether there exist effective means to guarantee that a corporation uses its Web site in ways that assure broad non-exclusionary access."
The most interesting part of the story: Cox addressed the issue by posting a comment, with the text of his response letter, to an unrelated entry on Schwarz' blog.
One reader dismissed Cox's comment as a "non-response," and another added, "Let's hope those new plain-English executive compensation disclosures are clearer than" Cox's answer to Schwarz.
But a third reader praised the online interaction between Cox and Schwarz. "It's astounding to read on a blog dialogue between a public company CEO and the chairman of the SEC. ... The American investor really benefits," the reader said. "Transparent and efficient markets and free flowing information."
Posted by Danny at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
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"Thoughtful introspection and determined resolve" -- that's what former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said the conservative movement needs after the electoral "thumping" Republicans took Nov. 7.
In a guest post at RedState today, DeLay argued that Democrats, who will take control of Congress in January for the first time in 12 years, did not win the election so much as Republicans lost it by failing to be aggressive enough in defending conservative principles. "Order, justice and freedom. These principles are the three legs of the stool upon which our society rests," he wrote. "With anyone of these legs removed the stool, and our society, topples."
He then outlined five areas where the GOP must work toward those principles: 1) promoting security; 2) reducing federal spending; 3) pursuing tax reform; 4) protecting "all innocent human life"; and 5) preventing courts from making laws rather than merely interpreting them.
"So for me, and I hope for many conservatives, this week is a time of reflection and rededication and not one of recrimination and retreat," DeLay wrote. "The 'thumping' I hear is of a conservative movement with a strongly beating heart."
UPDATE: DeLay's post prompted criticisms from some RedState readers who think he wasn't true enough to conservative principles while leading House Republicans. DeLay responded with a follow-up entry defending his record. "Well played," said Tim Chapman of the Heritage Foundation.
Posted by Danny at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
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I wondered how long it would be before some blogger made note of this:
"[I]t was with some suspicion that I watched gas prices inexplicably plummet a national average of 75 cents a gallon during the final two months leading up to the election. ... And now that Election Day has passed? Hmm. Well, I don't know about your neighborhood, but prices here in south Seattle started rising within days, and are already up as much as a dime a gallon at some stations."
Posted by Danny at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)
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Several House Democrats took to blogosphere this week to voice their support for Pennsylvanian John Murtha as the next majority leader, but their colleagues didn't heed the message. This morning, the Democratic Caucus voted 149-86 to elect Marylander Steny Hoyer as majority leader instead.
The Democrats who publicly endorsed Murtha at The Huffington Post were: Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren and Hilda Solis of California; Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; John Larson of Connecticut; James Moran of Virginia; and David Wu of Oregon.
Murtha also made an appearance at The Huffington Post earlier in the week after House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., endorsed him over Hoyer.
Getting Murtha elected had been a mission for site founder Arianna Huffington, who over the weekend penned an entry titled "Jack Murtha For Majority Leader ... And 'Person Of The Year." "On November 7, the American people made it clear they want a change in policy in Iraq," Huffington wrote. "One way for Democrats to make it clear to the American public they're heeding this call is to elect Murtha majority leader."
Huffington then urged her readers to pressure their congressmen to vote for Murtha. They didn't. So does that count as another loss for the Democratic netroots?
UPDATE: Oh, wait, Huffington said the vote was a victory for Pelosi -- a moral victory "for taking a stand" with Murtha and against the Iraq war, which is "what real leaders do" -- so I guess it's a victory for the netroots, too.
UPDATE: After his defeat, Murtha returned to The Huffington Post, where he is a regular contributor, for another rant against the Iraq war: "I ran for majority leader to put the issue of Iraq front and center and to push as hard as I could to change our war strategy. Like you, many of my colleagues understood that this race was about delivering on our promise we made to the American people a little over a week ago. ... Iraq is the key. Democrats won the election because we spoke up, and the real test of our leadership lies ahead."
Posted by Danny at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
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Trent Lott once described himself as the "first pelt" of bloggers on the hunt for political victims. They are credited with driving the Mississippi Republican from the Senate majority leader's post in 2002 after he praised 1948 segregationist presidential candidate Strom Thurmond.
On Wednesday, Lott regained a measure of his stature and power inside the Beltway when Senate Republicans elected him as their new minority whip. Here's what bloggers think of that decision:
-- Americablog: "Now we see the face of the new GOP. It's the face of the old GOP: an avowed racist."
-- BuzzMachine: "Trent Lott is back in a position of party leadership, despite being the first scalp on bloggers' belts. So are bloggers not as powerful as they/we thought? Well, politics aren't so easily reformed."
-- Captain's Quarters: "All I can say is that if Trent Lott represents the lesser of two pork evils in the GOP Senate caucus, then we're going to lose more elections, and probably deservedly so."
-- Cato@Liberty: "[T]he Republicans have just elected pork-barrel champion Trent Lott, R-Miss., to be their second-ranking leader. I guess the GOP wants to get a headstart on losing the 2008 election."
-- Daily Kos: "It's always nice having bigots and racists in top GOP leadership posts to remind the world voters why they should keep voting Democratic." And Eschaton recapped the comments and history that got Lott in trouble in the first place.
-- Mary Katharine Ham: "Welcome to 'Survivor: The Isle of Crappy Republican Leadership.' This season: voting off everyone who could have a shot at turning the flailing party around!"
-- MyDD: "So, everyone remember that the modern Republican Party is welcoming of all types of people, even though they did just elect a leader who think the country would have fewer problems if a segregationist had become President instead of Harry Truman."
-- Real Clear Politics: "Lott is in a far better position than Lamar Alexander to effectively use the wide array of Senate rules the minority has at its disposal to frustrate the majority, especially a one-vote majority. The very brief post-election comity is ending -- as well it should from the Republicans' standpoint."
-- RedState: "Lott was an ineffective leader, too willing to accommodate obstructionist Daschle-led Democrats in the Senate, and too unwilling to fight for conservative issues such as judicial nominations. During his time in leadership exile, Lott did little to distinguish himself. ... Now here we are, four years after Lott's last ineffectual stint in leadership, and it looks like Republican senators have learned next to nothing."
-- Talking Points Memo: "Nice to see that the segregation wing of the Republican Party can still muster a majority of votes in the Senate GOP caucus. ... After running a race-baiting campaign against Harold Ford in Tennessee, the GOP bypasses the other senator from Tennessee to install a leader nostalgic for the Dixiecrats."
Posted by Danny at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)
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Hunting For Lame Ducks
Several lame ducks are running around the halls of Congress this week, and Public Citizen is keeping a close eye on them with its new blog, Lame Duck Hunt.
The site went live in late October, before anyone knew for certain that voters would hand Democrats complete control of Congress beginning next year. The blog's mission -- stopping "a host of harmful and unpopular legislation that the GOP leadership plans to bring up after many are no longer accountable to voters" -- seems even more relevant now that Republicans have only a few more weeks in power.
After the election, Public Citizen listed 57 lame ducks. The group already is claiming victory on behalf of lame-duck hunters for apparently killing the nomination of John Bolton to head the United Nations and blocking expedited passage of a bill to grant permanent normal trade relations to Vietnam.
Lame Duck Hunt also is watching for mischief on appropriations bills, trade, offshore drilling and overtime pay for truckers, among other things.
"If outrageous bills are brought up during the lame-duck session," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said in a release upon the blog's launch, "the public needs to know who is responsible -- including the GOP congressional leadership and the retired and fired members who are leaving Congress."
I haven't added Lame Duck Hunt to the blogroll on the left because it's a temporary site, but there are some other new blogs there that I wanted to mention. Two of them are blogs by The Economist, Democracy in America and Free Exchange.
The other newcomers to the blogroll are: the Campaign for Victims of Crime; the Center for Creative Voices in Media; Democracy In Action; and Verizon's PoliBlog.
Posted by Danny at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
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The Impact Of Blogs In Campaign 2006
American voters decided to make a change in the partisan leadership of Congress and several state governments a week ago today, and since that momentous balloting, bloggers and others have been pondering the impact of blogs in fostering that change. Here's a roundup of chatter over the past few days:
-- Jerome Armstrong of MyDD: "Taking out George Allen, who was the runaway insider poll's No. 1 pick for the Republicans' presidential nomination in December of 2005 -- that's one of the biggest upsets in the last 50 years. Steve Jarding [with the campaign for Allen's Democratic foe, James Webb] told me yesterday that over 60 percent of the fundraising for Webb came over the Internet. This win is so huge for the netroots." Armstrong also praised the netroots players of the past few years and argued that "a people-powered movement that has been building and maturing this decade crossed a Rubicon with Tuesday's historic victory."
-- Chris Bowers of MyDD: "There isn't a signle one of these races [touted by Democratic bloggers] that was top tier when we picked them. We were trying to expand the battlefield. Even when we didn't win, we left a strong, local netroots scene in place for future challenges. The netroots page was an asotunding success, and it will be significantly responsible for our new majorities."
-- Bull Moose: "There is great joy in Mooseland. The nutroots have struck out. Joe Lieberman has prevailed [over Ned Lamont in Connecticut's Senate race]. The vital center is victorious! ... A powerful message has been sent to the '08 wannabes who sent Negative Ned their money and support: You can pander to the nutroots to win primaries, but you must reach out to the vital center to win a general election (even in a deep blue state)."
-- BuzzMachine: "[T]here's a lesson here for newly empowered popular movements and for political parties. It's just not clear yet what that lesson is. Does the law of unintended consequences rule: A movement rose up to purge Lieberman from the party but ended up losing one for the party? Or does this demonstrate to party leaders that they can't lose control of their parties? Can they still? The people and the power brokers have to figure out who's on top. And: YouTube allowed anyone with a camera to report on any candidate, and so now any misstatement gains toxicity and speed; this is the true viral politics."
-- Daily Kos: "Dear know-nothings: I know most of you are stupid, and proud to remain that way. But the netroots backed more than just Ned Lamont. For example, Jim Webb and Jon Tester in the Senate [both personally supported by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga], and dozens more in the House. ... So Lieberman won. Lots of our candidates lost. Lots of them won. It's called elections. Hugs and kisses." More thoughts from Kos here, here and here.
-- E.politics: "[B]logs can and did raise the profile of candidates who otherwise might have been written off, and they certainly helped keep activists on both sides deeply involved as the campaigns unfolded. They're an excellent communications and community-building tool. Just don't ask them to cure the common cold, find your car keys or make the sun shine on a cloudy day."
-- Eschaton: "I really don't care who gets 'credit.' I just know that it's silly to set this up as a competition, and some of the hostility you see from some in the party organizations to the 'netroots' is absurd. Whatever role people online play -- and the money raised isn't the most important role -- they're, you know, trying to help Democrats get elected." Plus some celebratory thoughts from Eschaton here.
-- Firedoglake: "The election of 2006 will go down in history as a moment when the netroots changed America's political conversation; when the mainstream moved from the far right of center to the center. While Ned Lamont may have lost his race to be the senator from Connecticut, all Democrats who are winning tonight owe him a debt of gratitude for being the first candidate to make Iraq the center of this electoral season. And it was the blogosphere that fueled that conversation turning it into a referendum on accountability and the need for checks and balances on a president run amok."
-- IP Democracy: "The real question is whether the netroots are relevant now that the mainstream Democratic Party is in control of Congress and what kind of influence they can have going forward. There's no doubt that some of these bloggers need to tone it down if they are going to have influence. But then they wouldn't be the netroots anymore -- they'd just be run-of-the-mill political bloggers targeting as wide an audience as possible."
-- Ari Melber at The Huffington Post: "The netroots were far more influential this cycle than 2004, and bloggers provided crucial, early support to candidates who are now headed to Congress. ... Yet the loss of Ned Lamont and other great Democratic candidates still stings. It seems like the post-mortem on that historic race will continue, as it should."
-- The Nation: "[T]he fact is the netroots' favorite candidates did not perform as well as the Democrats targeted by party leaders. And they were never supposed to. Many of the bloggers' picks were aggressive Democrats in long-shot districts who were neglected by the Beltway establishment. There is no doubt that bloggers leveraged money and political buzz to make races more competitive and put Republicans on the defensive, but it was simply not the decisive factor in the elections."
-- The New York Times: "As the smoke began to clear after Election Day, two things seemed clear. Though the netroots have forever changed how campaigns raise money and find votes, the results demonstrated that they cannot yet win elections on their own. But the Democratic Party cannot win major national elections without the netroots. ... All told, the Democratic netroots and the party's traditional establishment managed to form an uneasy -- and in many cases unintended -- collaboration. What happens next is less clear, especially as the Democratic leadership moves from campaigning to governing." (Reactions at Eschaton and Firedoglake.)
-- Right Wing News: "The Democrats were out of power, they were deeply unhappy about it, and they wanted to commiserate with other like-minded souls. So, they sought out these liberal blogs. If that theory is correct, and I tend to think that it is, then it means that the right side of the blogosphere is going to experience a boom because of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and company coming into power." And some thoughts on whether Republican leaders should pay more attention to conservative blogs.
-- Jonathan Singer of MyDD: "[F]or all of the Beltway-types who are going to great lengths to needlessly trash the netroots out of fear that their power will be challenged by this relatively new bottom-up, grassroots movement let's just remember that the track record of the establishment wasn't as uniformly positive as they might have us think -- and nor was the netroots' as uniformly negative, either."
-- Matt Stoller of MyDD: "[W]e shouldn't be deceived. This is not going to be a Congress where we are treated as an equal partner. Though we represent some important piece of the primary voting universe, we have aways to go before we are able to garner substantial respect and inculcate our intellectually honest and open culture into the party. Also, we're not ready to take full power yet. We don't have the ability to govern the party or the country yet, though we have sketched an outline of the new politics."
David Sirota, who worked for Lamont's campaign, also wrote a piece for In These Times that examined what went wrong with Lamont's campaign in Connecticut. And TalkLeft dismissed Lieberman's victory in that race as "hollow."
Posted by Danny at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
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Fallout From The YouTube Election
Technology Daily published a story last week on the electoral impact of YouTube, and a trio of bloggers were quoted in the story. Here is what they had to say:
Colin Delaney of e.politics: "Because [videos] can spread from person to person, they get picked up by the major media and amplified," said Colin Delany, the founder of e.politics.com, which offers new media advice."
Jon Henke of QandO, who joined the campaign of Sen. George Allen, R-Va., late in Allen's unsuccessful re-election bid: "While a picture may be more powerful than [words], in an age of democratization of video, we're seeing a video is more powerful than a picture."
Howard Mortman of Extreme Mortman, who previously worked at The Hotline: "YouTube had the single-biggest impact on this election cycle in 2006. It's unlike anything we've seen in politics in recent memory."
Another Tech Daily story addressed the role of bloggers in the election, and one of those bloggers, Chris Bowers of MyDD, said Allen's opponent, Democratic Sen.-elect James Webb, may be the first elected official who can credit his victory to YouTube. "I'm sure we were a certainly a factor in his victory," Bowers said of bloggers who used YouTube video of to paint him as a racist. "It was a very close election."
Posted by Danny at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
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The Hacks Of The GOP Blogosphere
John Cole of Balloon Juice seems to be on a mission these days, and his targets are his former allies on the right side of the blogosphere.
Several days ago, he told his readers why he has grown increasingly disgusted with the Republican Party. On Election Day, he admitted to voting for Democrats Robert Byrd for the Senate and Alan Mollohan for the House. Now he is calling GOP bloggers "hacks" admitting after the election that they were happy not to have to defend any longer the crop of Republicans that voters just tossed out of office.
Cole's response: "You acted like party hacks -- you were party hacks -- and now there isn't much left of the party. So much for the intellectual honesty of the blogosphere and the new media. It's Karl Rove with a keyboard."
Posted by Danny at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
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Shifts in partisan power within Washington inevitably lead to new job openings for the ascendant party, and this year, that tradition may be extending to the political blogosphere.
Two days after Democrats regained control of Congress, Democratic blogger Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo announced that he is looking to hire a reporter/blogger for another new publication as part of his TPM Media enterprise. Marshall is based in New York, but the new person will work in Washington, where Marshall's TPMMuckraker already is active. The new job is for a new site.
"We are looking for someone who is funny, clever, interested in writing and reporting about politics and the people involved in politics in innovative ways," Marshall wrote. "Journalism experience is a big plus but not an absolute necessity. Most of all I'm looking for someone who can look at what's going on down there with a fresh set of eyes."
Posted by Danny at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)
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Fallen Dems
Forget the war in Iraq. The political war in America this year proved to be a bloodbath for the "fighting Dems," who might more aptly be called the "fallen Dems" after Tuesday's election.
After Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, a Democrat, nearly scored a special-election upset in Ohio's strongly Republican 2nd District last summer, bloggers and other Democrats began touting war veterans as candidates for 2006. They touted dozens of such candidates as the antidote for the Democratic Party's long-running electoral ailments on the defense and security fronts.
But if Democrats have the same low tolerance for political casualties as they have shown for battlefield casualties in Iraq, their push to recruit and elect to Congress military veterans who run as Democrats will be short-lived.
A few of the anointed candidates dropped out of their races well before the general election, and 18 others were defeated in primaries, suggesting that the party as a whole is not eager to rally around veterans. Most of the other fighting Dems were soundly defeated Tuesday.
The outcome in Texas was particularly brutal for Democratic candidates with a military past. Not a single one survived the Election Day Alamo; in fact, none even came close to victory. The highest finish by a fighting Dem in Texas was 40 percent, and one of them, Rick Bolanos, only netted 2 percent in an eight-candidate race.
Here's a look at their results:
Losers In Open Seats
-- Tammy Duckworth (Illinois): 49 percent
-- Jay Fawcett (Colorado): 41 percent
-- Richard Siferd (Ohio): 40 percent
Losers To Incumbents
-- Ted Ankrum (Texas): 40 percent. Rep. Michael McCaul won 55 percent of the vote, compared with 84 percent in 2004.
-- Dick Auman (Illinois): 33 percent. Rep. Donald Manzullo won 67 percent, similar to the 69 percent he receive in 2004.
-- Phil Avillo (Pennsylvania): 34 percent. Rep. Todd Platts won 64 percent, compared with 91 percent in 2004.
-- Lee Ballenger (South Carolina): 37 percent. Rep. James Barrett, who had no competitor in 2004, won 63 percent.
-- Rick Bolanos (Texas): 2 percent. Rep. Henry Bonilla won 49 percent, down from 69 percent in 2004, while Bolanos and six other competitors split the rest.
-- Jim Brandt (California): 37 percent. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher won 59 percent, down from the 62 percent he won against Brandt in 2004.
-- Charles Brown (California): 46 percent. He held Rep. John Doolittle to 49 percent, down from 65 percent in 2004.
-- Dave Bruderly (Florida): 40 percent. Rep. Cliff Stearns won 60 percent, down 4 percent from his 2004 race against Bruderly.
-- Duane Burghard (Missouri): 36 percent. Rep. Kenny Hulshof snagged 61 percent, compared with 64 percent in 2004.
-- Jack Chagnon (Florida): 37 percent. Rep. John Mica, who had no competitor in 2004, won 63 percent.
-- John Courage (Texas): 24 percent. Facing six opponents, Rep. Lamar Smith lost only 2 percentage points from the 62 percent level he achieved in 2004.
-- Dan Dodd (Texas): 35 percent. Rep. Sam Johnson won 63 percent, compared with 86 percent in 2004.
-- Andrew Duck (Maryland): 39 percent. The 58 percent mark hit by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett was a decline of 10 percent from two years ago.
-- David Harris (Texas): 37 percent. The winning percentage for Rep. Joe Barton declined to 60 percent, from 66 percent in 2004.
-- Bob Johnson (New York): 37 percent. Rep. John McHugh finished with 63 percent, down from 71 percent in the last election.
-- John Laesch (Illinois): 40 percent. House Speaker Dennis Hastert saw his total drop from 69 percent in 2004 to 60 percent this year.
-- Jim Marcinkowski (Michigan): 43 percent. Rep. Mike Rogers won 55 percent, compared with 61 percent in 2004.
-- Eric Massa (New York): 48 percent. Rep. John Kuhl bested his 2004 finish by 1 percent, finishing at 52 percent.
-- Jim Nelson (Georgia): 32 percent. Rep. Jack Kingston, who had no competitor in 2004, won 68 percent of the vote.
-- Herb Paine (Arizona): 39 percent. Rep. John Shadegg finished with 58 percent, far less than the 80 percent of two years ago.
-- Rich Sexton (New Jersey): 41 percent. Rep. Jim Saxton was re-elected with 58 percent, down slightly from 63 percent in 2004.
-- Charlie Thompson (Texas): 36 percent. Rep. Jeb Hensarling won 62 percent, just shy of the 64 percent he scored two years ago.
-- Roger Waun (Texas): 23 percent. Rep. Mac Thornberry fell short of his 92 percent mark in 2004 but still demolished Waun by winning 74 percent.
-- Mike Weaver (Kentucky): 45 percent. He held Rep. Ron Lewis to 55 percent, a 13-point drop from two years ago.
-- Al Weed (Virginia): 40 percent. Rep. Virgil Goode won 64 percent against Weed in 2004 and only saw his victory margin drop 4 points in the rematch.
-- Bill Winter (Colorado): 40 percent. Rep. Tom Tancredo won 59 percent, just a 1-point decline from the 60 percent of 2004.
Defeated In Primary/Caucus
-- Mishonda Baldwin (Maryland, seat retained by a Democrats)
-- Rick Cornstuble (Indiana, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bern Ewert (Virginia, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bill Falzett (California, seat retained by GOP)
-- David Fierst (Ohio, seat retained by GOP)
-- Steve Filson (California, seat captured by Democrats)
-- Andrew Horne (Kentucky, seat captured by Democrats)
-- Tom Kovach (Pennsylvania, seat retained by GOP)
-- Jeff Latas (Arizona, seat captured by Democrats)
-- David Murf (Texas, seat retained by GOP)
-- Karen Otter (California, seat retained by GOP)
-- Rick Penberthy (Florida, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bert Smith (Oklahoma, seat retained by GOP)
-- Eric Streit (Kentucky, seat retained by GOP)
-- Terry Stulce (Tennessee, seat retained by GOP)
-- Peter Sullivan (New Hampshire, seat captured by Democrats). Another fighting Dem, Pete Duffy (see below), withdrew from the battle for this same seat before the primary.
-- Joe Sulzer (Ohio, seat captured by Democrats)
-- John Wolfe (Ohio, seat retained by Democrats)
Withdrew From Primary
-- Pete Duffy (New Hampshire, seat captured by Democrats). Another fighting Dem, Peter Sullivan, was defeated in the primary for the same seat.
-- Tim Dunn (North Carolina, seat retained by GOP)
-- Bill Mitchell (Florida, seat retained by GOP)
Winners
-- Chris Carney (Pennsylvania): 53 percent. He defeated Rep. Don Sherwood, who won 93 percent of the vote in 2004. But Sherwood, who narrowly survived a primary challenge, was tainted by a messy extramarital affair and an alleged attempt to choke his mistress.
-- Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania): He defeated Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick by about 1,500 votes. Fitzpatrick won with 55 percent in 2004 over netroots hero Ginny Schrader, who last year withdrew from a planned rematch.
-- Joseph Sestak (Pennsylvania): 56 percent. He defeated Rep. Curt Weldon, who won 59 percent in 2004.
-- Tim Walz (Minnesota): 53 percent. He defeated Rep. Gil Gutknecht, who dropped from 60 percent in 2004 to 47 percent this year.
Posted by Danny at 11:50 AM | Comments (7)
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Netroots Winners
The Democratic netroots won bragging rights in the battle of the blogosphere Tuesday.
Ridiculed from the right for two years over a poor won-loss record for blog-backed candidates, the netroots came through this year with a handful of wins -- seven to be exact. Five House candidates and two Senate candidates who won they endorsements of Democratic bloggers will be members of the 110th Congress. Two other House candidates are trailing by less than 1,000 votes.
That gives them a guaranteed record of 7-12 this year and the potential to see the number rise to 9-12. By contrast, the conservative bloggers behind the "Rightroots" campaign finished 2-19.
Here are the results, via the latest numbers from CNN:
House
Winners
-- Paul Hodes (New Hampshire): 53 percent
-- Jerry McNerney (California): 53 percent
-- Patrick Murphy (Pennsylvania): 50 percent
-- Joseph Sestak Jr. (Pennsylvania): 56 percent
-- Tim Walz (Minnesota): 53 percent
Losers
-- Francine Busby (California):, special run-off
-- Darcy Burner (Washington): 49 percent
-- John Courage (Texas): 24 percent
-- Jay Fawcett (Colorado): 41 percent
-- Larry Grant (Idaho): 45 percent
-- Larry Kissell (North Carolina): 50 percent, down less than 500 votes
-- Eric Massa (New York): 48 percent
-- Ciro Rodriguez (Texas): 41 percent, defeated in primary
-- Dan Seals (Illinois): 47 percent
-- Linda Stender (New Jersey): 48 percent
-- Gary Trauner (Wyoming): 48 percent, down less than 1,000 votes
Senate
Winners
-- Jon Tester (Montana): 49 percent
-- James Webb (Virginia): 50 percent, leading but recount possible
Losers
-- Ned Lamont (Connecticut): 40 percent
Posted by Danny at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
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For the last three months of Campaign 2006, leading Republican bloggers touted 21 House and Senate candidates, raised money for them and encouraged voters to go cast ballots for them yesterday.
Today, they have a 2-19 record to show for those efforts. Yes, the GOP bloggers who for two years have ridiculed the Democratic netroots for their poor electoral win-loss record now are being forced to swallow the bitter, and in this case ironic, pill of political defeat.
Most of the anointed candidates were easily defeated, and that reality apparently is so painful that all details of the "Rightroots" campaign were quickly removed from the Web site of ABC PAC, where it had resided and been regularly updated since August.
The only thing on the ABC PAC page now is this boast: "Because of you, ABC PAC was able to raise almost $300,000 for Republican House and Senate candidates online! This is an amazing achievement that we should all be very proud of." Oh, and there is an appeal for more money, too.
Here are the returns for the blog-backed Rightroots candidates, based on the results available at CNN when I wrote this post:
House
Winners
-- Michele Bachmann (Minnesota): 50 percent
-- Peter Roskam (Illinois): 51 percent
Losers
-- Chuck Blasdel (Ohio): 38 percent
-- Max Burns (Georgia): 49 percent
-- John Gard (Wisconsin): 49 percent
-- Diana Irey (Pennsylvania): 39 percent
-- Jeff Lamberti (Iowa): 46 percent
-- David McSweeney (Illinois): 44 percent
-- Ray Meier (New York): 45 percent
-- Ralph Norman (South Carolina): 43 percent
-- Rick O'Donnell (Colorado): 42 percent
-- Van Taylor (Texas): 40 percent
-- Scott Tipton (Colorado): 37 percent
-- Chris Wakim (West Virginia): 36 percent
-- Mike Whalen (Iowa): 43 percent
-- Andrea Lane Zinga (Illinois): 43 percent
Senate
Losers
-- Mike Bouchard (Michigan): 41 percent
-- Thomas Kean (New Jersey): 45 percent
-- Mark Kennedy (Minnesota): 38 percent
-- Mike McGavick (Washington): 39 percent
-- Michael Steele (Maryland): 44 percent
Posted by Danny at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
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Democrats easily regained control of the House yesterday, and they have a decent shot at recapturing control of the Senate as election returns in the tight Montana and Virginia battles are counted. The armchair pundits of the political blogosphere already have had plenty to say about what it all means.
Here are some early thoughts, which I'll update as more bloggers post their initial reactions to the election results:
Althouse: "I'll have to rethink this tomorrow, but it seems to me that not much can happen in the next two years. The brakes are on everywhere. The watchword is 'humility'... isn't it?"
Chris Bowers of MyDD: "Democrats look set to take the House, and with a larger majority than Republicans ever had during their 1994-2006 'revolution.' We also won more Senate campaigns in a single cycle, 23-24, than either party has won since at least 1980."
Captain's Quarters: "This is a big loss, and it will hurt the GOP and the Bush administration. Even if we do hold the Senate, we will have to find compromise candidates for the federal bench and also look forward to more taxes and regulation. Free trade is a goner. The prosecution of the war on terror will get limited by a probable repeal of the PATRIOT Act, or at least an attempt to do so, and I'm very sure the Democrats will move to defund the operations in Iraq by a date certain in order to force a 'phased redeployment.' And that's not even counting the myriad investigations that Democrats will launch against the Bush administration."
The Club For Growth: "The GOP minority will be a stronger, more fiscally conservative caucus going forward."
Crooks and Liars: "This is our time and it is just starting. The netroots are growing strong and becoming a greater influence in the political landscape of America."
GOPProgress: "Republicans have been given a message; whether they listen to it will determine how long they struggle in the minority. What's the message? Adopt some sound principles and apply them with integrity."
The Huffington Post: "The Democrats have taken back the Congress. But Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has won big in California, the largest Democratic stronghold in the nation. That bodes well for Barak Obama's bid for the White House. ... The meaning of Arnold's victory in the midst of Republican debacle is that the public wants its leadership in the center."
Instapundit: "The Democrats now have a chance to govern, not just carp, and how well they do over the next couple of years will have a lot to do with whether they have a shot at the White House in 2008. Perhaps getting back into power will also encourage a bit of responsibility. We'll see. If nothing else, the bitterness that comes with losing, and being out of power, is likely to recede a bit. Republicans would be wise not to succumb to a similar bitterness, especially as this defeat could have been avoided if they'd stuck to their principles."
Michelle Malkin: "The GOP lost. Conservatism prevailed. 'San Francisco values' may control the gavels in Congress, but they do not control America. Property rights initiatives limiting eminent domain won big. ... Congressman Tom Tancredo, the GOP's leading warrior against illegal immigration -- opposed by both the open-borders left and the open-borders White House -- won a fifth term handily. Gay marriage bans won approval in 3 states."
RedState: "The United States did not reject the agenda of the right tonight. I know the media very badly wants to say that. I know the left wants to think that. But the fact is that this is not true. Had either the left or the media paid attention, they would have heard that the right was angry about Medicare Part D. They would have heard that the right was angry about government spending. They would have picked up on the disgust the right has shown to the congressional leadership."
The Right Angle: "One Republican winner to come out of last night was Sen. John McCain. By campaigning hard for the team (and donating lots of money, too), he made lots of friends around the country" for his potential 2008 presidential bid.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_11_05.php#010983">Talking Points Memo: "The election marks a beginning more than an end. Savor the moment tonight. But there is much to be done and no time to linger. Plans must be implemented. More battles waged. Our opponents have been planning for this moment for many months. They are ready. We must be, too."
TalkLeft: "What Republicans are trying to spin is that the tsunami tonight was not a loss for conservative policies. But look who was defeated or is headed to defeat tonight -- [Sens.] Santorum, Allen, Burns, Talent. Not to mention the conservative congressmen defeated. These are four of the most conservative politicians in America. If that is not conservative defeat, then what is?"
Posted by Danny at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
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What do bloggers do when a bunch of them get together in a Washington coffee shop to watch election returns? They just growl and keep on typing.
At least was the perception Ann Althouse has of CNN's invite-only blog party last night. "It was actually surprising how unsocially awkward most bloggers are," she said.
Posted by Danny at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
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Sen. Harry Reid Praises Bloggers
Americablog has YouTube video of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid praising bloggers for their campaign work this year, including the money they raised for candidates.
Here's how Reid, R-Nev., ends his short video: "Blogging is here to stay. It's part of our American life. ... It's even going to become more paramount in the years to come. Keep up the good work."
Posted by Danny at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)
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Cross-posted at Tech Daily Dose
That's a good question on this Election Day -- and in an election year when people online have come to expect transparency in government, not to mention lots of campaign-related video.
The Center for Citizen Media has the state-by-state answer in a guest post by Lauren Gelman, deputy director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University.
Posted by Danny at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)
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Kos has a couple of favorites this election year, and neither of them is Ned Lamont.
Federal Election Commission records show that Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga has contributed a few thousand dollars to congressional candidates this year. The bulk of the money has gone to Democratic Senate candidates Jon Tester in Montana and James Webb in Virginia.
Moulitsas gave each of them $250 on June 26, and he donated another $1,000 to each of their campaigns Sept. 18. The latest FEC reports indicate that he has given a total of $1,825 to Tester this election cycle and $1,300 to Webb. The totals for the cycle include donations of less than $200, the threshold at which candidates are required to itemize contributions.
Moulitsas' only other contribution of $200 or more this year was for $250 to former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez on Feb. 2. Rodriguez, a favorite of Demoratic bloggers in the primary season, lost his rematch with Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in March.
While a name search of FEC records did not reveal any donations from Moulitas to Lamont, the Connecticut Senate candidate vaulted to prominence earlier this year by the Democratic netroots has received some money from other high-profile Democratic bloggers.
The biggest blog donor surge for Lamont came early in his campaign. Matt Stoller of MyDD contributed $500 on Feb. 17. The FEC report identifies him as a self-employed blogger. Chris Bowers, another MyDD blogger, donated $250 three days later, and Stirling Newberry of The Agonist and TPMCafe gave $250 the same day as Stoller.
Duncan Black of Eschaton has not made any donations of $200 or more to Lamont, according to a name search at the FEC Web site. But he, too, has been an active political contributor this cycle. Based in Philadelphia, Black appears to have a preference for homegrown House candidates named Murphy. He gave $200 to Patrick Murphy last December and another $200 to the unrelated Lois Murphy in May.
On Sept. 13, Black also gave $250 to Vote Vets, a political action committee whose mission is to elect to Congress Democrats who served in the military in Afghanistan and Iraq but who are critical of ongoing war efforts.
Top bloggers on the left are not alone in contributing to political candidates. In fact, top Republican bloggers Hugh Hewitt of Townhall and John Hinderaker of Power Line have dug deeper into their pockets to try to boost their favored campaigns.
Hewitt's favorites this year are GOP Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, both of whom are locked in tight races. (Santorum appears headed for defeat.) Hewitt gave $2,000 to Kyl on June 26 and $1,000 to Santorum on Oct. 18. An FEC search of Hewitt's name revealed a string of political donations to various candidates dating back to the late 1990s.
Hinderaker's contributions also stretched back that far. This election cycle, he has donated the following itemized amounts: $2,400 to Rep. Mark Kennedy, the GOP Senate candidate in Minnesota, where Hinderaker lives; and $2,100 to Michele Bachmann, a GOP House candidate in the Gopher State. Hinderaker's wife, Loree, donated another $400 to Bachmann, according to an FEC search.
Posted by Danny at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
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Your Tech Daily Dose Of Political News
We launched Tech Daily Dose today at National Journal's Technology Daily -- just in time for us to provide electoral analysis and insight from a tech perspective.
The content is free, and the comment feature is enabled. In addition to reporting from two of our senior writers on Election Day and Night, we will have occasional guest posts from various tech industry sources, watchdogs and others interested in the intersection between technology, politics and policy. We'll be at CNN's blog party tomorrow, too.
Posted by Danny at 04:51 PM | Comments (1)
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Last week's feature story on paid campaign bloggers has generated some feedback that merits an update.
For starters, my piece prompted Bill Beutler, a former colleague and the creator of The Hotline's Blogometer, took the information from my article and compiled a chart with prorated salaries for the bloggers and Internet experts I mentioned in the piece. I specifically chose not to do that in my article because of all the caveats that would have been necessary -- lump sums, irregular payments, etc. -- but Bill prefaced his analysis with those caveats. You can see the results at Blog P.I.
I also heard from a couple of bloggers mentioned in the story. Peter Daou wrote to say that he not only collects wages from HILLPAC, the political action committee of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., but also from Friends of Hillary, her Senate re-election campaign. I only mentioned the HILLPAC data in my story, and Daou actually earns more of his money from the Senate campaign.
In addition to the $1,250 a month he earns from HILLPAC, he said he receives $3,750 from Friends of Hillary. Daou further disclosed that he does blog consulting for AARP, Media Matters, PR Newswire and the U.N. Foundation. He said his income for the work is in the six figures.
As noted in my article, AARP also has paid Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits for blog consulting. Daou said the two have separate agreements with the group.
Jerome Armstrong of MyDD also contacted me to say that my article should have made more clear distinctions about the type of work the various bloggers and Internet experts do for the campaigns and what their payments encompass. Some are employees of the campaigns, for instance, while others are consultants who must pay overhead costs. A couple of other readers made similar points in e-mails to me.
Blogger Ed Cone of North Carolina, meanwhile, added to my list of paid campaign bloggers by noting that Matthew Gross of Deride and Conquer "is doing some work for John Edwards and has been active elsewhere in the political arena as well."
If any other readers know of bloggers working for campaigns, either in a paid or volunteer capacity, please e-mail me at dglover@nationaljournal.com or post a comment to this blog entry.
Posted by Danny at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
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Candidate And Lawmaker Interviews, Round IV
This entry is bumped to the top of the blog every time new interview links are added. Go to the extended entry for the latest interviews. Links to earlier blog interviews with lawmakers and candidates are available here, here and here.
In the two-plus month since its restructuring and redesign this summer, RedState has secured the spot as the most profilic of political podcasters, at least as far as I can find in the blogosphere.
Earlier this year, that unofficial honor went to a blogger on the left, Jonathan Singer of MyDD. But while he had another timely interview with Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, just this week, Singer has not been producing as many interviews with candidates and lawmakers as he once did. The Akaka interview was Singer's first since July 17.
RedState Radio, meanwhile, aired a series of interviews in August and has done so even more consistently since Congress resumed its work earlier this month. The trend is intentional, as RedState this week began publishing its interview schedule in advance. RedState Radio will air episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
RedState had to settle for a print paraphrasing of an interview with Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., at the start of this week because of a technical problem with the podcast. But also this week, RedState Radio has conducted a dual interview with Republican Reps. Jack Kingston and Tom Price, both of Georgia, and a separate interview with Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo.
UPDATE, 11/3: RedState snagged some time with House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall interviewed GOP Senate candidate Michael Steele of Maryland.
UPDATE, 10/29: Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits published two video blurbs of his time with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., while the two were in New Hampshire. The first segment focused on North Korea and the second on Iraq.
Hynes is on the payroll of McCain's Straight Talk America political action committee as a consultant. He acknowledged that with this comment: "If the questions seem a little softball-ish (as a couple of readers have remarked) it's because John McCain’s Straight Talk America is a client and I'm a powder-puff interviewer anyway."
UPDATE, 10/27: With the election just does away, politicians are making last-minute appearances in the blogosphere. Here's the rundown:
-- Captain's Quarters posted a two-part interview with Sen. George Allen, R-Va.
-- RedState conducted another podcast with Bob Corker, the Republican Senate candidate in Tennessee.
-- GOPProgress snagged Bob Smithers, a Libertarian House candidate in Texas.
Candidates who aren't running for office this year also are doing time online. The Glenn and Helen Show snagged former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner for a podcast just days after he announced that he will not seek the presidency in 2008. And Michael Barone, who writes "The Almanac Of American Politics" for National Journal, blogged about his interview with President Bush. John Amato of Crooks and Liars wants a shot at Bush, too.
UPDATE, 10/20: Right Wing News interviewed Bob Corker, the Republican seeking Tenneessee's open Senate seat.
UPDATE, 10/3: GOPProgress interviewed two Connecticut Republicans locked in tight House races: Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons.
UPDATE, 9/30: Pajamas Media interviewed Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Real Clear Politics grabbed some time with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Some folks have talked about the potential of the two senators to join forces for a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2008.
UPDATE, 9/27: With RedState Radio now posting interviews three times a week, this recurring feature is quickly turning into all RedState, all the time. If any of you Democrats out there are aware of blog interviews with Democratic candidates and lawmakers, please e-mail me at dglover@nationaljournal.com. The same goes for all of you third-party bloggers, too.
In the mean time, the latest chats available at RedState are with Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential 2008 presidential candidate.
UPDATE, 9/22: The race between Republican challenger Mike Bouchard and Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow has become one of the most-discussed in the nation over the past few weeks. Political observers like National Journal's own Charlie Cook and Chuck Todd see it as a potential upset. That helps explain why the latest interview from RedState is with Bouchard.
Posted by Danny at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
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Supporters of Sen. George Allen of Virginia wrestled a liberal blogger to the ground Tuesday after the blogger confronted Allen with what witnesses said was a question about whether he had spit on his former wife.
The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va., reports that Allen, who is being challenged this election by Democrat James Webb, was walking toward the lobby of a hotel after a campaign speech "when University of Virginia law student Mike Stark approached him and loudly asked if he had ever spat at his first wife."
Stark, a 38-year-old, first-year law student, blogs at Calling All Wingnuts. In a post there on Monday, he said, he is "trying to 'Roger & Me' George Allen whenever I can." "Roger & Me" was the documentary that made liberal activist Michael Moore famous. The film featured Moore's confrontational attempts to interview then-GM CEO Roger Smith about plant closings in Flint, Mich.
Tuesday's encounter was not Stark's first run-in with Allen. Two months ago, as recounted at his own blog, Stark confronted Allen at a Staunton hotel with questions about racial insensitivity.
After the latest incident, Stark contacted local police about pursuing assault charges.
He said he is not associated with any campaign, but in a post at AllenHQ, Allen campaign blogger Jon Henke characterized Stark as "a Democratic activist and Webb supporter with a history of aggressively harassing Senator Allen and pulling stunts for media attention." Henke also said the spitting rumor has been spread on liberal blogs.
A press release issued by the Allen campaign also identified Stark as a foul-mouthed, frequent blogger at Daily Kos. The founder of that site, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, proudly claimed Stark as "our very own," and a letter that Stark wrote in response to what Moulitsas called an attack by "Allen thugs" was posted to a Daily Kos diary. Stark also gave a brief interview to TPMCafe.
Video of the tackling incident is online, and numerous blogs are discussing it. Here are some excerpts:
-- Americablog: "You are witnessing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, not to mention a crime."
-- Hot Air: "The nutroots' mock outrage is mounting, as would ours be if a righty blogger had been laid out by Jim Webb's handlers. Of course, righty bloggers wouldn't be trying to push their way through a ring of people to shout questions about whether the candidate had ever spat on his ex-wife."
-- MyDD: "Not a good move to have your campaign assaulting voters, senator."
-- Think Progress: "Stark is not, as CNN reported, a 'protester.' He is a constituent who was trying to ask Allen a question."
Other Virginia news outlets covering the confrontation included The Free Lance-Star, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times, The Virginian-Pilot. AP and The Washington Post also had stories.
UPDATE: Conservative bloggers have been working hard this week to provide more background information on Stark and to put his confrontation with Allen in context. Captain's Quarters had two posts on the subject, and another blog pointed readers to Stark's own secretive musings about "guerilla tactics" he was plotting in late August.
Posted by Danny at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
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The U.N.-backed Internet Governance Forum has been meeting in Athens, Greece, this week, and the human rights group Amnesty International asked bloggers to seize on the gathering as an opportunity to rally for fellow bloggers who have been jailed in other countries for speaking their mind.
"[W]hile the Internet has brought freedom of information to millions, for some, it has led to imprisonment by governments that have sought to curtail this freedom," Amnesty said in a statement. "Web sites and blogs have been shut down, firewalls built to prevent access to information. Governments have restricted and filtered search engines to keep information from people in their territory."
The group specifically cited the case of Kianoosh Sanjari, an Iranian blogger who was arrested earlier this month while reporting on clashes between security forces and supporters of Muslim cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi. Other Internet activists mentioned by Amnesty included Chinese journalist Shi Tao, Tunisian lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Abbou, and ietnamese political dissident Truong Quoc Huy.
"Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege -- but it's a right that needs defending," said Steve Ballinger, part of Amnesty's delegation to the U.N. event. "We're asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with Web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticizing the government."
Here are the rest of this week's blog bits:
-- Congress seems certain to have at least a few new lawmakers next year who will have been elected in part because of the support they received in the blogosphere. That could increase the political clout of bloggers.
"When those successful candidates are sworn in next January," predicted Adam Kovacevich of Dittus Communications, "they will be particularly aware of the role that bloggers and online communities play in political debate and will be careful to pay special attention to what's being said online. That means companies and organizations trying to influence Congress will also need to play on this new electronic playing field."
-- Earlier this year, I wrote two entries on bloggers seeking political office this year. I just learned, via Instapundit, that there is another one in Tennessee, state Senate candidate Bob Krumm.
-- John Cole of Balloon Juice still thinks of himself as a Republican and has friends in the GOP blogosphere. But he is disgusted by what he sees in both the party and in his blogging colleagues.
Cole's lament won him some sympathy from Democratic blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, who once was a Republican himself. "[W]hatever decision he has ahead, he has already made one important one -- he'll refuse to be a conservative sycophant," Moulitsas wrote. "That would've been his easiest option, and the one almost universally taken by his conservative colleagues. His next step, no matter which one he takes, will be much, much tougher."
Cole's post also earned him scorn from John Hawkins of Right Wing News. So is a third party the answer? Not for Cole, who said a third party would be like the XFL of politics.
-- A couple of Minnesota bloggers joined New York Times reporter David Carr in the Gopher State for a panel discussion about blogs. Carr voiced concern that blogs will become nothing more than "typed talk radio."
-- If netroots hero Ned Lamont loses the Connecticut Senate race to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Matt Stoller of MyDD knows who to blame: Senate Democrats and former President Bill Clinton. William Beutler of Blog P.I. sees the rant as more evidence of Stoller's consistent "over-reliance on self-righteous anger and quick imputations of bad faith to his political opponents," and he said Stoller is like "a circus clown exaggerating his act."
-- The Washington Democratic Party agreed to pay a one-time licensing fee to milblogger Michael Yon after using one of his copyrighted photographs in a campaign flier for House candidate Darcy Burner. Seattle Times political reporter David Postman blogged about the controversy.
-- Is Mark Halperin of ABC News a liberal? Conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt said he is, and Halperin is none too happy about the characterization. Now liberal blogs like Daily Kos and Unclaimed Territory are bashing Halperin for running from the "liberal" label.
-- Conservatives can get their fill of blog commentary at a new daily roundup called The Rightometer. Launched last week, it is one of several blog publications from Human Events Online.
-- Some bloggers have earned reputations as effective government watchdogs. Now a new online guide called Watchdogging 101 could help even more bloggers do that kind of work.
-- ShopFloor participated in blog calls with Rob Portman, the head of the White House budget office and with House leaders, who talked about good economic news, the electoral stakes and prospects for the Republicans, and renewal of the research and development tax credit.
-- Vernon Robinson, a Republican House candidate in North Carolina, invited bloggers to play campaign manager for a day by voting on what events he should schedule.
-- GOP Bloggers called attention to the numerous anti-Democratic Web sites created by the National Republican Senatorial Committee this year. The sites include Spinning A Webb and Tic Tac Tester.
-- The Internet is quickly becoming the place to go for political news, according to an AP and AOL News poll mentioned online at ABC News. Moulitsas of Daily Kos called the numbers "mind-boggling."
-- Public-relations expert Richard Edelmen discussed his company's missteps in advising Wal-Mart about how to behave in the blogosphere. The bottom line: "We were insufficiently transparent."
-- CommonWealth magazine in Massachusetts profiled citizen journalism advocate Dan Gillmor.
-- Compulsory gay marriage? How in the world did that idea make its way onto Congress Blog? It looks like a John Kerry-esque botched joke, but still.
Congress Blog needs to be a whole lot more selective about what it publishes if the site wants to be taken seriously. It has deteriorated into a forum for regurgitated press releases and statements by lawmakers, random and often incoherent musings from political candidates, and canned commentary by interest groups.
The blogosphere is supposed to be about conversation, and Congress Blog offered the promise of bringing that mindset to official Washington. Unfortunately, it has failed to live up to that promise.
-- I mentioned in a recent roundup of blog bits that Guatemala and Venezuela were in the running for a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Captain's Quarters reports that both nations withdrew their bids, and Panama got the seat instead.
Posted by Danny at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
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In The Blog's-Eye: John Kerry, Stuck In The Spotlight
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts thrust himself into the spotlight yesterday with an ill-timed comment about people with poor educations getting "stuck in Iraq."
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, said he just worded a slam against President Bush poorly and was not referring to American soldiers when he said this: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Democratic bloggers not surprisingly have taken Kerry's side.
But plenty of people, including Bush, White House spokesman Tony Snow and critics whom Kerry dismissed as "assorted right-wing nut-jobs, and right-wing talk-show hosts," think otherwise. Here is a sampling of blog commentary.
-- Althouse: Kerry's statement "is rather unfair to the Democrats who are actually running in the election. I'd love to hear the behind-the-scenes cursing he so richly deserves. (And let me add that Kerry is outrageously lying when he says he wasn't referring to the troops.)"
-- Daily Kos: "Kerry has nothing to apologize for. The people who have turned their backs on the troops do. And even though this ridiculousness will lead the evening news, fact is, we should embrace the opportunity to remind Americans how Republicans rally to the 'troops' defense only when it suits their own cynical political ends."
-- The Democratic Daily: Kerry's statement "was blown way out of proportion and distorted into an slight against the troops, who, were by the way, never mentioned, continues. ... [T]his major distortion, this major distraction, is pure and simple the work of the Republican noise machine."
-- Hugh Hewitt: "Kerry reminded people that the war against the war has been underway since mid-2003, and that the Democrats have never taken the many opportunities to try and rally around the effort to reconstruct a free Iraq but at every turn have demanded an exit on some sort of rushed and arbitrary timetable."
-- RedState: "How long do you think it will be until Howard Dean or Chuck Schumer grab the shovel with which Senator Kerry is so assiduously digging the grave of Democrat hopes for taking the majority in Congress and bash him over the head with it? I for one hope they take their sweet time."
-- Oliver Willis: "It's no surprise that the party of Iraq, Katrina, and 9/11 is worried about the coming election and has resorted to yet another attack on John Kerry to rile up the [conservative] base. What is surprising is how strong a response Sen. Kerry has put out. ... [I]f he had been this tough in '04, he would have won."
Hotline On Call also looks at what pundits are saying about Kerry's misguided attempt at humor days before a pivotal eleciton. Kerry's comment also raised some questions in the minds of The Hotline crew, including one tongue-in-cheek query that already has been answered: "Will bloggers -- smart and pragmatic -- come to Kerry's defense?"
Posted by Danny at 07:15 AM | Comments (0)
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