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'Macaca' Sure Has Been Good For Jon Henke

Last year, blogger Jon Henke went to work for the Republican that many people in the party once thought had the best shot at being the 2008 presidential nominee.

That didn't work out so well because by the time Sen. George Allen, R-Va., hired Henke, Allen was trying to salvage the "macaca" mess he had made of his political fortunes. Henke was on a late-campaign fool's errand to use new media as the polish to remove the tarnish from a candidate seemingly determined to lose.

Perhaps Henke learned a lesson from that experience. This week, he started work, indirectly, for an undeclared candidate that more and more Republicans hope will jump into the presidential race: former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

In other words, Henke, who spent the first five months of this year spearheading new media outreach for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hasn't been hired to sell spoiled goods to a skeptical electorate. He has been hired to promote a political underdog who has embraced the very new media tools that helped Henke make a political name for himself.

"Some months ago, after reading an excellent John Fund piece on Fred Thompson," Henke wrote at the QandO blog where he contributed before going to work for McConnell, "I had a conversation with Mike Turk. Following our conversation, he put together a post making 'The Case for Fred Thompson.' It is a compelling case, and one with which I generally agree."

Stay tuned to see whether this third political marriage is a success for Henke -- and for Thompson.

Three other notes related to Henke's announcement:

1) Both William Beutler of Blog P.I., a former colleague of mine at National Journal, and Howard Mortman, who worked at National Journal before I met him, will be working with Henke on the Thompson campaign. All three are part of the public affairs shop that Mortman runs at New Media Strategies.

Beutler disclosed his work for Thompson, and his "right-libertarian" political leanings, in a post at Blog P.I. Mortman opted for a lighter-hearted disclosure at Extreme Mortman: "How will this affect the Extreme Mortman blog? Simple. I will continue to ridicule the first and third 'Die Hard' movies, but 'Die Hard 2' is now off limits." (For those who don't know, Thompson, an actor, appeared in the latter movie.)

2) Shira Toeplitz of Hotline On Call, a current colleague of mine, penned a detailed "On The Download" entry about the rest of Thompson's Internet team, which also includes Turk as the "chief architect."

3) And Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation shared his thoughts on Henke's move and the Thompson Web team.

Posted by Danny | 11:27 AM

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