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Tom DeLay: From Hammer To Blogger

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, once known as "The Hammer" for his tough leadership style, dipped his toe into the waters of the blogosphere last month at RedState and liked it so much that he decided to make a go of it on his own at TomDeLay.com.

"I did not fully realize the impact or potential of the blogosphere until very recently, when RedState gave me the opportunity to post some of my observations in the wake of the recent mid-term elections. ... This experience brought me to the immediate realization that I needed to become more directly involved in the blogosphere," the welcome entry said. "TomDeLay.com is the product of our latest effort to find new ways to connect, unite and organize conservatives from all over America into a real grassroots political force."

Today's edition of The Hill said DeLay is attempting to build a conservative counterpart to the liberal activist site MoveOn. He is calling the new outfit on the right the Grassroots Action and Information Network.

Ironically, MoveOn got its start during the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton. DeLay was forced to resign his leadership post and eventually from Congress because of his alleged connections to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"I have to say, the blog is the perfect place for him to keep everyone updated on all his legal travails," Paul Kiel said at TPMMuckraker. "Hopefully he'll realize that eventually. Who better to give us the skinny on the Jack Abramoff investigation than one of its main subjects?"

U.S. News & World Report also had a small blurb on DeLay's blog in "Washington Whispers." And bloggers from left to right are taking note.

Much of the commentary on the right has been self-congratulatory. Both La Shawn Barber's Corner and Wizbang, for instance, noted that they are on DeLay's 25-site blogroll.

The left has emphasized DeLay's early mishap with the blog: U.S. News noted that the site can filter unwanted Democratic comments, but that feature apparently didn't work too well yesterday, as noted at Daily Kos, Personal Democracy Forum and ThinkProgress.

Never fear, though, the comments were captured and have been republished at a blog that bills itself as "a tribute to the 75-minute period where Tom DeLay actually received feedback from America."

The Republican establishment appears to have embraced DeLay's foray into new media. He will be speaking tomorrow at a bloggers' briefing sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and Human Events Online.

But at least one Republican blog, the newcomer ElephantBiz, which is dedicated to "the business of Republican and conservative politics," lamented that DeLay is trying to make himself the face of the GOP blogosphere.

"As a long-time Washington insider, DeLay doesn't fit the profile of an outsider to lead the Republicans back from the wilderness," Bill Hobbs wrote. "Republicans don't need to be lead by the guy the Democrats hate the most; they need to be led by someone who, without compromising conservative principles, can gain the support of moderate Democrats the way that guy named Ronald Reagan did two decades ago."

UPDATE: Right Wing News cited the comments deleted from DeLay's blog as a good reason for why some Republican bloggers shun comment sections on their sites. "[W]hen a bunch of liberals [were] allowed to post uncensored comments on the blog of a hated political foe," John Hawkins wrote, "most of what they had to say was stupid, obscene and generally moronic."

Blog P.I. also tackled the commenting aspect of DeLay's blog and noted that DeLay -- shock! -- is not actually writing the entries himself.

Posted by Danny | 09:12 AM

Comments

Tom Delay as a blogger is going to give me nightmares.

Terry | 12.11.06 05:31 PM

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