Sorry, honey. You can try and make the team all you want, but you're a couple of years behind the times. Besides, you didn't pass the background check...
Posted on 01/08/2006 1:45:31 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
While her toddler son slept, Carrie Lynch of Madison sat down at her computer last week and stepped into a public square of pixels and Web pages.
The 34-year-old political insider and stay-at-home mom launched her Web log of leftwing commentary on a prominent local Web site Wednesday, joining a growing horde of pundits and partisans looking to play a modest but unprecedented role in the November state elections.
"That's pretty crazy. I'm surprised," Lynch said when she learned that by noon Friday, 100 people had logged on to read the post she'd written in her pajamas that morning. "It's this whole world out there and it's fascinating. There really does seem to be an upsurge in political activity by people having this outlet."
These snarky running commentaries better known as blogs are already well-established in national politics. But now state and local blogs are coming into their own, influencing policies like Wisconsin's gas tax and drawing politicians such as Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker and Madison Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan to the keyboard.
The blogosphere can be plagued by breathless speculation, an inbred brand of partisanship and bitter attacks on public figures, often made by anonymous, fact-challenged writers who may be acting on an old grudge or a secret, self-serving interest.
But blogs are also an outlet for both the insider and the everyman, especially the young. And they serve as a rough and ready political police force, watching out for every misstep by politicians and traditional media.
"It's no secret it's a phenomenon that's really taken off, I think. Wisconsin's seen this phenomenon mushroom in the past year," said Jeff Mayers, head of the WisPolitics.com family of Web sites that launched Lynch's "What's Left" blog (www.wisopinion.com/blogs/ whatsleft/index.html) and another by former Republican strategist Brian Fraley last week.
Citizen revolt
State lawmakers felt a little of that force last month. A citizen revolt raised by high gas prices, talk radio and blogs caused the Senate's Republican leadership to make a public reversal, voting against automatic increases to the state's gas tax after first saying the tax indexing was needed to ensure enough money to pay for needed roads.
Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, said it would be "overly simplistic" to simply chalk the flip- flop up to bloggers and blog- posting talk radio personalities such as Charlie Sykes of WTMJ in Milwaukee, who urged readers and listeners to call legislators.
"Did both of those things have an impact on gas tax indexing? I suspect they did," Schultz said of the blogging and talk radio, which often feed on each other. "I think it all adds up to more intense scrutiny of the political process and it's hard to be anything but in favor of that."
Walker, a blogger himself, said his gubernatorial campaign has cultivated bloggers. In a recent interview, Walker compared bloggers to the kinds of "opinion-makers" he meets at Rotary Club gatherings.
Blogging for free
Most of the state's well- known bloggers are, like Sykes, conservative and Milwaukee- based - something Lynch said she got into blogging to try to change.
One well-known Madison blogger is Ann Althouse, a UW- Madison law professor who has drawn notice from the New York Times for her posts on everything from federalism to the singer Dion. Like Lynch, Althouse says she'll be blogging this year about the proposed state constitutional amendment on gay marriage that's expected to be on the November ballot.
Most bloggers like Lynch receive nothing for their posts, and even Althouse, with her national profile and 8,000 site visits a day, said she receives only $900 a month for the ads posted on her blog - a nice bonus but not enough to live on.
That hasn't kept Americans from jumping into blogging. Two surveys last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that about one in 20 adults nationwide reported creating a blog and about one in six are blog readers.
Studies by the Pew project also debunk a major criticism of bloggers and the Internet in general - that people use the Web to seek out their preferred brand of politics and shut out opposing arguments. In fact, wired Americans get more points of view from both sides of the political spectrum, a 2004 study found.
In his own research, UW- Madison journalism professor Dhavan Shah said he's found that the virtual public squares where people post and reply to messages may be in some ways more powerful than traditional town halls.
"What we found is, in fact, this form of exchange and expression online may be more powerful in terms of . . . leading to actual action in the real world than face-to-face talk," Shah said. "It's also something that tends to engage our young citizens who tend to be the most disengaged from civic life - which is huge."
Anonymous bloggers
But while bloggers are shining a light on politics, they're often doing it from the dark.
Take the conservative Madison blogger who goes by the pseudonym Dennis York. York has won a readership with posts that sometimes criticize his own side.
"Because to me there should be somebody who is on the lookout to say to conservatives, 'Maybe something that we're doing may not look all that great,' " York said in a telephone interview.
Speculation abounds on the identities of anonymous local bloggers such as York, who has a youthful voice, a young daughter and a wife who considers blogging the "anti- marriage," and a phone number that blocks caller ID.
York acknowledged the problems with criticizing public figures anonymously but said he needs to remain secret to protect his job and professional relationships - something that gives credence to guesses he could be an aide to a Republican politician.
"I struggled with the fact that it's anonymous, too," York said of his blog. "I just have a job that doesn't really take too kindly to individual comments."
Tiny impacts
Carrie Lynch's background gives a sense of why a blogger's identity matters.
As a former aide to both state and federal Democrats, Lynch can prove she's got insight to offer about politics. Lynch also received immunity in exchange for testimony about illegal campaigning that went on in the now defunct Senate Democratic Caucus office where she once worked.
Lynch said she regrets that part of her past, but not her left-wing outlook. "The only thing in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and armadillos."
Both Lynch and York said they are looking to make tiny impacts with their blogs. York said bloggers still have to get their message into mainstream media like newspapers to reach enough people to make a difference.
"It's too nascent of a technology. It's too new to be that effective," York said of blogging. But, "it's obviously going to get more significant as it continues to grow." State political blogs Here's a sampling of prominent state and local blogs on politics:
"Check Out The Wisconsin Bloggers" Ping.
Wow- I sure wish I knew more about the internet world. I would love to start my own conservative blog.
You can be sure that whenever there's a glowing article about blogging, it features a liberal website. This is a pattern that I've seen over and over during the past several years. In the meantime, conservative blogs are rarely headlined, and if they are, it is in a negative light. No surprises here.
"No surprises here."
You got it. That's why I posted it. :)
Sorry, honey. You can try and make the team all you want, but you're a couple of years behind the times. Besides, you didn't pass the background check...
Perhaps this liberal Blog need to be DUFUed by the ULTIMATE Blog---The DUmmie FUnnies.
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