Pols who blog.
Over at Josh Marshall's new TMPCafe, our 2004 VP-nominee John Edwards -- now the director of the Center on Work, Poverty, and Opportunity at Chapel Hill -- is blogging about his pet topic, poverty and what Democrats can do to fight it. He's got two posts up so far, nothing overwhelming, but some good stats and links about the payday loan industry and props to bill introduced in 2002 and by the retiring Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes (and currently languishing) to regulate high cost mortgages providers.
Senator Edwards joins a growing list of Democratic Pols who Blog. At liberal clearing-house Daily Kos, Senators Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, and (our Senator and soon-to-be governor in absentea) Jon Corzine, and Congressman John Conyers routinely post diaries about their legislative and investigative committee work. Corzine, who was base-smart enough to diss the DLC way back in April 2001, has written about his work on the Darfur Accountability Act (which was gutted in House committee after a White House directive to that effect.) Boxer, a liberal icon after her symbolic challenge to the Ohio vote certification last December, has blogged about the fight against the Bolton nomination and drilling in the ANWR. Feingold has blogged about the FEC's work in establishing campaign rules for blogs (which has forced him to tangle a bit with the site's owner, Markos.) Conyers, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee (also a hero to the liberal base in part for his work investigating alleged voter intimidation and technology misallocation in urban Ohio) has been the most prolific contributor at Kos, writing diaries on his various activities, most recently to promote wider recognition of the revelations in the Downing Street Memo. Conyers and California State Treasurer Phil Angelides also blog at the Huffington Post.
Blogs aren't the only way politicians get themselves partisan audiences. Various elected officials and former candidates have increasingly taken the opportunity to publish articles in political journals. Over the past year or so, The New Republic has run mulitple (excellent) articles by its new darling, Eliot Spitzer, but also by Senators Joe Biden and John McCain, General Wes Clark, and failed Oklahoma Senatorial candidate Brad Carson among others. The current issue of the Washington Monthly features contributions from Biden and Clark in its Middle Eastern Democracy symposium, and has previously run articles by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in 1999 and 2000 and John McCain in 2001.
But the blogging game is something altogether different. It goes beyond what's achievable in the traditional politician's op-ed in the New York Times or even the more specialized format provided by a slot in TNR and Washington Monthly. For one thing, most blogs (and virtually all liberal blogs) have comment sections, allowing any online partisan shmoe to register and respond (this is especially true at a forum like Daily Kos where, it should be noted, only very popular Democratic figures have ventured to post diaries). So far, Edwards has 66 responses to his first post (although a lot of them seem to be from the same person). While Edwards hasn't taken criticism or provoked any substancially off-topic commentary, the possibility for an embarrassing attack is always there. The blog is a much less controlled format than the journal or newspaper article and commentary can be rougher and less balanced than what is likely get printed as a letter to the editor of the New York Times. In addition to the access created by the blog format -- the implicit back and forth -- there's also a casualness to blogging not present in the more formal print publications. When a pol blogs, he has to produce -- or at least give the impression of producing -- material relatively quickly, in his own voice, based on his own reservoir of knowledge. It's a sort of informal monologue, like this one. In a sense, it's like a traditional Town Hall meeting, but without the protective barrier of your staffers making sure the audience is friendly and the questions are ones you can answer. (As an example of the danger pols can run into blogging, during the race for the DNC Chairmanship, one of the unloved-by-the-grassroots candidates, Donnie Fowler, took some very rough questions when he posted a self-introduction in the comments at Chris Bowers and Jerome Armstrong's blog MyDD.)
Generally, of course, pols can still keep their distance on a blog just by staying out of the comment section, or more generally by not addressing things posted there. But reading what a politician says online can also be a good way to assess him, his general eloquence, and his dedication to whatever cause he's posting about. And it does take some guts to cross that line into the rough-and-ready blogosphere, even at a "safe" Beltway site like TPM Cafe. Americans -- at least those not immediately involved in the campaign process -- tend to view their political leaders with a mix of awe and contempt -- we see politicians living in sort of a different world where a lot of shadowy deals are cut that we don't observe and can't control. The central irony of American politics is that we both distrust the government but expect the world from it -- for it to be wiser than us, to keep us safe, whatever. Blogging can help cut through some of that crap, to humanize our politicians, make them seem more accountable but maybe also less distant, less sinister and corrupt. At the very least, it's an interesting development in campaigning and an excellent way for Democrats (particularly politically unemployed Democrats like Edwards) to keep themselves and their issues on the radar.
Update (June 1): Of course, really smart pols might even invite a bunch of prominent bloggers over for dinner.
Senator Edwards joins a growing list of Democratic Pols who Blog. At liberal clearing-house Daily Kos, Senators Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, and (our Senator and soon-to-be governor in absentea) Jon Corzine, and Congressman John Conyers routinely post diaries about their legislative and investigative committee work. Corzine, who was base-smart enough to diss the DLC way back in April 2001, has written about his work on the Darfur Accountability Act (which was gutted in House committee after a White House directive to that effect.) Boxer, a liberal icon after her symbolic challenge to the Ohio vote certification last December, has blogged about the fight against the Bolton nomination and drilling in the ANWR. Feingold has blogged about the FEC's work in establishing campaign rules for blogs (which has forced him to tangle a bit with the site's owner, Markos.) Conyers, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee (also a hero to the liberal base in part for his work investigating alleged voter intimidation and technology misallocation in urban Ohio) has been the most prolific contributor at Kos, writing diaries on his various activities, most recently to promote wider recognition of the revelations in the Downing Street Memo. Conyers and California State Treasurer Phil Angelides also blog at the Huffington Post.
Blogs aren't the only way politicians get themselves partisan audiences. Various elected officials and former candidates have increasingly taken the opportunity to publish articles in political journals. Over the past year or so, The New Republic has run mulitple (excellent) articles by its new darling, Eliot Spitzer, but also by Senators Joe Biden and John McCain, General Wes Clark, and failed Oklahoma Senatorial candidate Brad Carson among others. The current issue of the Washington Monthly features contributions from Biden and Clark in its Middle Eastern Democracy symposium, and has previously run articles by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in 1999 and 2000 and John McCain in 2001.
But the blogging game is something altogether different. It goes beyond what's achievable in the traditional politician's op-ed in the New York Times or even the more specialized format provided by a slot in TNR and Washington Monthly. For one thing, most blogs (and virtually all liberal blogs) have comment sections, allowing any online partisan shmoe to register and respond (this is especially true at a forum like Daily Kos where, it should be noted, only very popular Democratic figures have ventured to post diaries). So far, Edwards has 66 responses to his first post (although a lot of them seem to be from the same person). While Edwards hasn't taken criticism or provoked any substancially off-topic commentary, the possibility for an embarrassing attack is always there. The blog is a much less controlled format than the journal or newspaper article and commentary can be rougher and less balanced than what is likely get printed as a letter to the editor of the New York Times. In addition to the access created by the blog format -- the implicit back and forth -- there's also a casualness to blogging not present in the more formal print publications. When a pol blogs, he has to produce -- or at least give the impression of producing -- material relatively quickly, in his own voice, based on his own reservoir of knowledge. It's a sort of informal monologue, like this one. In a sense, it's like a traditional Town Hall meeting, but without the protective barrier of your staffers making sure the audience is friendly and the questions are ones you can answer. (As an example of the danger pols can run into blogging, during the race for the DNC Chairmanship, one of the unloved-by-the-grassroots candidates, Donnie Fowler, took some very rough questions when he posted a self-introduction in the comments at Chris Bowers and Jerome Armstrong's blog MyDD.)
Generally, of course, pols can still keep their distance on a blog just by staying out of the comment section, or more generally by not addressing things posted there. But reading what a politician says online can also be a good way to assess him, his general eloquence, and his dedication to whatever cause he's posting about. And it does take some guts to cross that line into the rough-and-ready blogosphere, even at a "safe" Beltway site like TPM Cafe. Americans -- at least those not immediately involved in the campaign process -- tend to view their political leaders with a mix of awe and contempt -- we see politicians living in sort of a different world where a lot of shadowy deals are cut that we don't observe and can't control. The central irony of American politics is that we both distrust the government but expect the world from it -- for it to be wiser than us, to keep us safe, whatever. Blogging can help cut through some of that crap, to humanize our politicians, make them seem more accountable but maybe also less distant, less sinister and corrupt. At the very least, it's an interesting development in campaigning and an excellent way for Democrats (particularly politically unemployed Democrats like Edwards) to keep themselves and their issues on the radar.
Update (June 1): Of course, really smart pols might even invite a bunch of prominent bloggers over for dinner.
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