« Talk About Embellishing Your Resume | Main | Defense Secrets Safer With Bloggers Than Brass »
August 16, 2007BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Rule #1 In E-Politics: Don't Attack The Bloggers
A year ago, the Republican National Committee launched a foolhardy attack against Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and his "hate-filled blog Daily Kos." I said then that "I simply don't understand why the RNC thinks it necessary to demonize a blogger whom most voters don't know and whose influence is greatly exaggerated."
Now it looks like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican who is up for re-election in Kentucky next year, needs a similar admonition. In a new fundraising letter, he has attacked Ditch Mitch KY, a blog of far lesser renown than Daily Kos but of arguably greater significance in Kentucky politics.
"Liberals on the Internet have already created a Web site called Ditch Mitch," McConnell wrote, "and 6,000 radicals from across the nation have already signed up."
For campaigns only looking at the financial bottom line, such attacks might make sense. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, for instance, apparently raised a bundle of money in June when his campaign sent fundraising letters that attacked the press for obsessing over how much he spends on haircuts. But there are political costs to such attacks, too.
In Edwards' case, he kept the haircut story alive another day -- and it was a story that already had prompted Kos to criticize him. In McConnell's case, he gave an opposition blog more fuel to fan the anti-McConnell flame. That's something he doesn't need when a prominent Democrat like Kentucy Attorney General Greg Stumbo is considering a run against McConnell.
So candidates, think twice before attacking bloggers in your fundraising letters. Before you do, remember that old saying about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel. Then wake up to the fact that no one has to put ink to expensive newsprint anymore to fight back. And remember that the bloggers you attack will be far more willing and even eager than any journalist to strike back -- and swarm.
Posted by Danny | 07:34 PM
