Robert Bluey
2007-01-18 08:00:00.0
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WASHINGTON -

In ways both big and small, bloggers are changing how business is done on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., learned firsthand last week the effect bloggers can have on public policy when he was handed the first defeat of his short tenure as majority leader.

It all started last Thursday when conservative Sen. Jim DeMint,

R-S.C., sought to strengthen the Senate’s ethics reform bill by amending it to include the same earmark reform language in the House-passed version. Reid’s deputy, Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., tried to kill the amendment, but nine Democrats broke ranks and backed DeMint. Instead of accepting defeat, Reid tried to twist arms and reverse the vote.

That’s when bloggers took notice. Rallying to DeMint’s defense, a coalition of bloggers, led by Andy Roth at the Club for Growth, documented Reid’s strong-arm tactics. The Examiner’s own Mark Tapscott and Ed Frank at Americans for Prosperity jumped on the story. I posted video on YouTube of Reid and DeMint’s clash on the Senate floor.

In the meantime, bloggers sent e-mails to Jon Henke, the newly hired new-media director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. It’s Henke’s job to deal with bloggers, and if there was ever an occasion, this was it. Despite McConnell’s support for DeMint’s amendment, an Associated Press story reported otherwise, and Reid implied as much on the Senate floor.

McConnell’s staff got the message. Thursday evening, Henke e-mailed bloggers, “Sen. McConnell is supporting Sen. DeMint and doing everything we can to make sure that the Democrats don’t destroy earmark reform.” By the next day, Henke was keeping bloggers appraised of the latest developments.

The debate had captivated the blogosphere. As Roth noted at the Club for Growth, more than 1,700 blogs had been written about earmark reform over a 24-hour period.

Three of the most well-trafficked liberal blogs — Daily Kos, MyDD and TPMmuckraker — also turned on the Democrat leader. “Sen. Harry Reid is fast losing whatever credibility he had on earmark reform,” wrote a blogger at Daily Kos. “Who’s the arm-twister now?” asked Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker.

By Friday afternoon, Reid had reversed course and DeMint was lauding him for agreeing to language that was “even stronger than what I had originally proposed.”

Last fall, it was through a similar effort that two freshmen senators — Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla. — overcame hurdles to pass legislation improving government transparency on contracts and grants by putting most federal spending on the Internet in a Google-like, searchable database.

The difference between then and now is that both McConnell and DeMint employ seasoned bloggers. As important a role as Henke played in the GOP leader’s office, so too did Tim Chapman in DeMint’s. Chapman, who previously worked with bloggers while at the Heritage Foundation, knew how to get the message out.

Henke and Chapman’s presence on Capitol Hill is a welcome sign for bloggers across the ideological spectrum. As last week’s episode with Reid illustrated, bloggers can pack a punch — and with allies in the halls of Congress — they really can make a difference.

Rob Bluey is editor of HumanEvents.com.