It's not much of a leap at all. Think about this for a moment. From Barbara Olson's comments (God rest her soul) to Registered's "Sore/Loserman" graphic to the recent "Lets Roll" campaign (which also originated here on FR) it's probably safe to say that FR is "monitored" by both political camps.
Time and again, I've seen & heard "one liners" quoted directly off of FR on Rush, some of the Sunday Talking Heads shows, Sean Hannity reading directly off of FR, and even the democRATS themselves trying to refute the comments made HERE, without anyone in the Republican Party saying nary a word.
It's a beautiful thing. I find myself often commenting to my better half "we said that on FR!" when the lamestream media finally catches up to US!
Often the best comments posted here are biting, hard-hitting, incisive and cutting edge. This is when FR is at it's best, IMO. The impeachment of Clinton was one of FR's hilights, since so many here were so active in that effort, and the Florida Election debacle was another. I continue to believe to this day that without FR, Republicans & Conservatives (the two are not always the same) wouldn't have stood up and done what we did in Florida, to secure the rightful victory that was President Bush's.
FR's influence is far and wide. Our only "problem" is that we do not measure that influence, and exercize it as much as we can and should. We need to find a tool with which to measure and document FR's successes. We "know" what they are, we just don't measure, document, and credit ourselves for them as much or well as we should.
( /soapbox)