December 22, 2005

12/22: The Year Of Blogging Dangerously

For your entertainment and edification, we present our year-end edition, a review of the year that was in the political blogosphere. For the sake of brevity, it's nowhere near as comprehensive as we might have liked. But then, that's what our archives are for. The Blogometer will resume publication on Tuesday, 1/3/06.

If 2004 was the year that blogs broke into the mainstream, 2005 saw an acceleration of this trend -- even without a presidential election to focus on. Unlike 12 months ago, the word "blog" itself is almost a household name. Those annoying wire stories that reiterate the fact that "blog is short for web-log" are definitely on the way out.

As a tool, blogs are merely the best-known aspect of "Web 2.0," a buzzword commonly used to describe post-dot com bubble innovations that are rejuvenating the Internet, and re-wilding the "wild west" of the Internet, as it was once known. Count RSS, folksonomic tags, wikis, podcasting, companies such as Google and concepts such as the Long Tail as part of the trend. Blogs are closely related to them all. If the above sounds unfamiliar, well, let's see in another 12 months.

As a community, blog participation appears to be growing at an exponential pace. Professional ventures continue to join the trailblazing amateurs, and some of those amateurs -- the elite bloggers you are most likely to see quoted in the Blogometer -- are seeing their influence grow along with it.

Take media professionals, who have a tortured relationship with the blogosphere: Many check in with a few favorite blogs regularly, others know what's being said but keep them at arms length, and not a few write for blogs. In the blogosphere, they can say for free what their employers would never consider paying them to write. (Count the number of MSM writers who are gainfully employed but also contribute to Huffington Post.)

Politicians are jumping into the blogosphere as well, although their reasons are quite different. To elected officials and candidates, blogs can help raise money. Blogs also can serve as an end-run around the establishment media, calling attention to issues and pressuring the MSM to follow up. But the embrace is even less easy than between bloggers and the media; politicians cannot count on even sympathetic bloggers to jump on command, and positive buzz can turn negative on very short notice.

Since our debut in late 3/05, the Blogometer has followed these events day in and day out. In this special edition, we'll try to summarize the major events, big debates, and overlooked stories that characterized the political blogosphere in 2005.

EARLY '05: A Close Schiavo

The fight over Terri Schiavo reached its height just as we launched; our 2nd edition covered her death and the extremely emotional responses. The right split hard -- more than over any other issue this year -- between pro-life advocates who saw removal of her feeding tube to be euthanasia, and those who thought the law was not on the pro-tube side. We quoted the now-defunct Hundred Percenter, who de-linked 8 high-profile anti-tube conservatives, including Instapundit and Little Green Footballs. INDC Journal's Bill Ardolino, one of the delinkees, responded: "The subtext of that post: 'Hillary '08!'"

Beyond Schiavo, the other early event that set the stage for Pres. Bush's long, slow decline in the polls was his abortive attempt to overhaul Social Security. In the end, there was too much reticence about dramatically altering the program and not enough support outside of business and conservative activists. Caution carried the day. As Matt Yglesias wrote at the time: "It's important to recall that we don't actually have the ability to make binding decisions about what Social Security will look like in the distant future. The program has only just recently reached the end of its very first 75 years and it's already been drastically changed several times."

Just a few months after the story known to some as Memogate and others as Rathergate, conservative bloggers seized on another apparent memo fiasco: The Washington Post reported that a GOP memo had declared the Schiavo case to be a "great political issue." Michelle Malkin and Mickey Kaus were among those who suspected another hoax or at least overzealous reporting by the Post's (now Time's) Mike Allen. Crosstown rival Washington Times gave this interpretation with a front-page, above-the-fold splash: "Was the Schiavo memo a fake?" Eventually it turned out the memo was not a fake; it had come from a mid-level staffer in Sen. Mel Martinez's (R-FL) office. Most who pushed this theory acknowledged the truth, lefty bloggers had a good laugh, and by this point is almost entirely forgotten. It is worth remembering as a reminder that blogs often push erroneous stories, and that once exposed, the misconceptions are more often than not quietly dropped.

DELAY: The Sugar Land Express

As the list of TRMPAC and Jack Abramoff-related accusations against then-House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay piled up early in the year, some on the left feared that he might be gone too quickly to be an effective bogeyman during the '06 midterms. In early 4/05, Sam Rosenfeld of TAPPED cautioned: "What did our president call it when Saddam fell too quickly? A catastrophic success. Think about it. Hands off DeLay!" And by late 4/05, conservative bloggers at RedState and UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge were calling on DeLay to resign. If anything, the coverage of DeLay's eventual step down has been characterized by one lull after another. The one exception was the day his eventual indictment by controversial DA Ronnie Earle.

IRAQ/TERRORISM/TORTURE: Sour Ghraibs

In mid-May, Newsweek published a few allegations of poor treatment at Gitmo by detainees there. Most memorable, and most questioned, was the report that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet. To the left, Newsweek was just the latest MSM to cave to admin. criticism, but to conservatives it was a betrayal. Austin Bay suggested that "history may see Newsweek's fatal 'Koran flushing' story as the US press' Abu Ghraib."

A few weeks after the Gitmo event, Amnesty Int'l suggested that Gitmo was a "gulag." Not long after, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) invoked Nazi atrocities when describing U.S. detainment practices. An uproar ensued, with conservatives interpreting his remarks as a direct comparison between the Bush admin and the Third Reich; liberals deemed that a misinterpretation. But Durbin apologized anyway, thus losing the strong support he had enjoyed from the lefty blogs.

Versions of this debate played out several times throughout the year, such as when the Washington Post reported on the existence of CIA prisons in Europe, over the existence of Able Danger, and now once again re: Bush's authorization of domestic wiretaps without specific court orders. The left considers it valuable reporting on a WH that's liable to do anything. With the sometime exception of torture, the right is angry not at Bush but the media. Many have called for prosecution of the leaks that resulted in these stories.

JUDGES: Filiblustering

The next signature fight of the early summer was over Bush's circuit court judges and the extant Dem filibuster that had kept them from a vote on the Senate floor. Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist, then a more likely WH '08 candidate than now, indicated his willingness to change Senate rules -- the "nuclear" (or "constitutional") option, and opinion tended to break neatly along party lines. But in the blogosphere, several liberal bloggers decided they'd be better off if Frist succeeded in getting rid of the filibuster.

Labor blogger Nathan Newman argued that "filibusters are inherently more of an obstacle to progressive government than a block to conservative politics." And while liberal and conservative bloggers endlessly debated whether the GOP's opposition to ex-Pres. Clinton's nominees was equivalent, the issue never came to a head: on 5/23, 7 GOPers and 7 Dems agreed on a compromise. Neither side was particularly encouraged. The Anchoress, from the right: "It's gonna be a long cold day before the [GOP] sees a dime of my money. A long. Cold. Day. Can someone please explain to me why, with 57% support from the nation ... the GOP caved on this?" Jesse Taylor, from the left: "Democrats win, basically. But they win in a way that is neither sure nor particularly productive in the long term." But it didn't take more than a few months for the CW to change, thus vindicating self-described "RINOs" like Mark Coffey, who had created a sidebar button for GOP-leaning bloggers who approved of the deal: "The Coalition of the Chillin." For a time, it allowed centrists such as Jeff Jarvis to wonder if the moderates could find a way to rule on other issues. But eventually it gave way to bigger fights over the SCOTUS vacancies that were coming soon.

SCOTUS: A Supreme Snoozer, A Serious QuagMiers, And Alito's Way

The filibuster compromise came at an opportune time for GOPers, as long-expected SCOTUS vacancies were indeed imminent. Over the months, many many rumors moved from conservative legal circles to RedState. Most, but not all, were wrong. The majority came from GA political consultant Erick Erickson, but one of the 1st (and one of the 1st wrong ones) came from Southern Appeal's Steve Dillard at RedState's Confirm Them: "Rehnquist will step down in the next four weeks: I don't think this news will come as a surprise to anyone, but I just received a phone call from an extremely reliable source who tells me that it's a done deal."

When Sandra Day O'Connor stepped down instead, up went the nomination of John Roberts, who proved to be relatively uncontroversial, even when switched to the CJ seat. Only when Rehnquist passed away, and Bush named WH counsel Harriet Miers to the bench did the 'sphere go wild. But the outrage came from the right, not the left, in a near reprisal of the angst over the filibuster compromise. This time ex-BC'04 webmaster (and soon to be RNC eCampaign dir.) Patrick Ruffini adopted the "Coalition of the Chillin'" logo for his pro-Miers group. Nevertheless, her withdrawal was a relief to conservatives. The left was more or less left scratching its head -- had they opposed her too little? Too much? And what came next? Next up for SCOTUS: Judge Samuel Alito, whose favor by conservatives and disfavor by liberals has restored the natural order of confirmation battles.

HACKETT: OH My

The summer doldrums brought 2 unexpected stories to the fore. One was the surprisingly strong candidacy of OH House special election candidate/Iraq vet Paul Hackett, who came within a few points of defeating now-Rep. Jean Schmidt in a heavily GOP district. Working in his favor was the OH GOP-implicating Coingate scandal, and the enthusiastic support of some influential liberal blogs, due in large part to Hackett's blunt criticism of Bush. Our 8/3 edition best summarized the frantic, heady week of fundraising and campaigning that led up to the 8/2 vote. Hackett became even more of a left-blogosphere hero after the election.

Later, Hackett's entry to the OH SEN race against fellow lefty blog favorite Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) would cause a minor controversy that resulted in the retirement of "liberal blogfather" Jerome Armstrong. We covered it 1st on 10/26, and followed up again with some original reporting on 11/1

SHEEHAN: Mother, Should I Trust The Government?

The 2nd big story was anti-war gold star mother Cindy Sheehan, who brought the anti-war movement as close as it's come to breaking out as a popular movement since the Iraq invasion. As we wrote on 8/16, "It may turn out that 2005 will be the Summer of Sheehan -- no matter which side of the increasingly emotional divide one finds themselves, the fact remains that it is an incredibly compelling and unnerving debate." Her encampment outside Bush's Crawford home during the dog days of summer -- in close proximity to a news-starved WH press corps -- and promotion by ex-Dean manager Joe Trippi helped get the media to pay attention, eventually turning her into a household name. Of course, much bigger news was in the offing (in fact, the transition from Cindy to Katrina was jarring enough for us to note the fact at the time). While she appeared in Time's year-end issue and still gets occasional publicity from the MSM, liberal bloggers almost never mention her, and conservatives only bring her up for the purposes of mocking the movement she represents.

KATRINA: The Battle Of New Orleans

We wrote on 8/29: "The only story that matters this a.m. is Hurricane Katrina. Where many had assumed the city could have been utterly destroyed, it seems clear at this point that it has been spared the worst: There will probably still be a New Orleans tomorrow." Within days, however, it was clear that N.O. (as many of us soon learned to abbreviate it) was not spared at all. And with Bush's slow response, embodied in an ill-advised guitar-holding photo op in San Diego and his ill-considered praise for now-ex-FEMA dir. Michael Brown, conservatives stopped holding back their criticism. While Bush hadn't had an easy time of it from the blogs throughout the year, Katrina damaged him in a way he hadn't been already.

Meanwhile, the blogosphere (both political and non) was noteworthy for its overwhelming response. As we wrote on 9/1: "Blog traffic is up overall, the same way cable news ratings are. Both the right and left are pointing fingers -- at Pres. Bush, at other officials, at the media and other businesses -- after all, criticism is the bread-and-butter of the political blogosphere. Despite the partisan rancor, blogs have started message boards independent of outside influence, plus local LA and MS media have grown blogs of their own -- bringing information to readers outside the area and helping displaced residents find relief, and each other, within. Fundraising efforts overlap with some traditional (i.e. non-blog) websites, but most activity so far largely originated at independent blogs from across the political spectrum. Had the blogosphere existed in its current form on 9/11, it would have looked something like this."

PLAMEGATE: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold And The Adviser Who Came In For Some Heat

What's there to say about Plamegate that hasn't already been analyzed from three or more angles? Between 6/20 and 12/16, now-ex-CIA "operative" Valerie Plame was mentioned in 88 of 118 Blogometer editions, frequently as the top story. The case was probably the closest-watched story of the year. At the outset, liberal bloggers almost to a person believed the WH had deliberately made her name public to "punish" her husband, ex-Amb. Joe Wilson, for contradicting their assertions about pre-war WMD intel. Months later, this line of speculation has largely disappeared, and if anything most of the controversy now focuses on the New York Times apparently inept handling of the case. Times reporter Judy Miller, long disliked by the left, eventually came to loom larger than Wilson or Bob Novak or Karl Rove. Eventually it even came to somewhat tarnish Bob Woodward, who knew about Plame, apparently from the same source as Novak.

Although the case had been discussed at some length during '03, when Novak published her name in a column, and the inquiry launched, the whole thing went big-time on 7/2 with the Huffington Post-hosted revelation by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that Rove had told/"leaked" Plame's name to Time's Matt Cooper. When the post first went up, the title was "Rove Blew CIA Agent's Cover"; later this was revised to the more cautious "It's Rove..." Despite skeptics like Kaus, O'Donnell had it largely right.

By mid-July, speculation ran so rampant we tried to keep track of it all. Among the theories we counted, all of which were wrong or are yet unknown five months later: "WH dep. CoS Karl Rove could face espionage charges rather than mere indictment under intelligence protection statues; Ex-Amb. Joe Wilson may have leaked wife Valerie Plame's role in his Niger trip to friends in the Washington press; New York Times' Judy Miller may have leaked the Wilson/Plame gossip to the WH; Or, Miller and the Times may be protecting another source, one unsympathetic to the WH; Ex-WH spokesperson Ari Fleischer may have leaked Plame's name."

Then came the near-jailing of Cooper, the actual-jailing of Miller, the 9/30 confirmation that Cheney CoS Scooter Libby was Miller's source, and then the 10/28 indictment of Libby. In the weeks leading up to this, the left-blogosphere had designated indictment day "Fitzmas," after special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It was a subdued one, as Rove escaped indictment. But as we head into '06, that possibility still hangs over Rove, and the WH.

BLOGGER OUTREACH: Gettin' To Know You

Dems have had the advantage of a "netroots" well developed during the invisible primaries of WH'04, and early in the year, DNC chair Howard Dean and Senate Min. Leader Harry Reidheld conf. calls with sympathetic bloggers. In early June, ex-VP nominee John Edwards "had a bunch of the political bloggers over for dinner at his D.C. house, I'm told, to meet with him, his Internet team, and his wife." But they haven't done much lately.

The GOP, meanwhile, largely ignored even the right-blogosphere until the fall of this year. Following the Miers disaster, the RNC and cong. GOPers wised up, and improved their outreach. On 10/20, the Blogometer attended a 10/20 "blog row" event for conservative bloggers to meet with GOP House members on Capitol Hill. We wrote then: "Events such as these highlight the blurring lines of journalism. It was aimed at amateur bloggers, but they weren't the only ones invited. ... Add to that, the caucus also filmed and photographed the event for its own purposes. While the interest in forging ties with amateur bloggers seemed genuine, it was also a rolling photo-op -- for the benefit of not just the MSM, but the blogosphere as well."

Conservative bloggers have been somewhat influential in the opposite direction. Post-Katrina, the impulse toward fiscal conservatism loomed large in the right-blogosphere. Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds and TTLB's N.Z. Bear created the Pork Busters project aimed at members of the House and Senate. So far, they have a staunch ally in Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who made waves this fall with a failed attempt to redirect fed'l funds from a bridge project in AK to repair the hurricane-damaged bridge that crosses Lake Pontchartrain north of N.O.

MISCONCEPTIONS: Drop It Like It's Hot

The Downing Street Memo is an issue frequently described as the subject of blogger buzz. Indeed, there are and were blogs started about it. But it never became a cause celebre of the biggest bloggers, and that was the source of some consternation on lower-traffic lefty blogs. Yet the story still got out, suggesting that the biggest blogs don't have to promote an issue for it to take hold. Not that it went anywhere -- for many it was old news, or they decided the memo didn't necessarily say what the memo's proponents argued it did. A contributor to The Next Hurrah lamented an "impeachment fatigue" that rendered all impeachment talk "tin foil hat-ish."

Somewhat different but along the same lines was Ed Klein's anti-Hillary book. Did right-wing bloggers eat it up? No, actually they tore it apart. It suffered in part because it included (and Matt Drudge heavily promoted) a particularly vicious false rumor about the Clintons' marriage. While a hot potato, nobody really believed it, and Ed Morrissey had a representative take: "I'm no fan of the Clintons, but the Right has had its problem reining in its vitriol regarding Bill and Hillary since 1992."

REGULATION: The Rules Of The Game

Bloggers of the left and right tend to be more libertarian than their offline counterparts, and early on RedState co-founder Mike Krempasky and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas joined forces to support cong. legislation protecting bloggers from new campaign finance rules, and later to argue before the FEC that online political activity should not be subject to new FEC rules. We were there on 6/29 when Duncan "Atrios" Black and others appeared before the FEC to argue their case. And in an important but overlooked ruling in late Nov., MO Dem consultant Roy Temple got approval from the FEC for his blogs to be treated just like any other media org, with a "press exception" from campaign finance laws.

INTRODUCING: The Drawing Of The Three

As we mentioned above, the blogosphere is beginning to organize itself into websites that aggregate blogs. Some emerge from traditional bloggers themselves, while others are projects by outsiders who want a piece of the action. There were 3 major introductions this year that stood head and shoulders above the rest -- though they have not all been equally successful:

The first out of the gate, conservative Beltway pundit-turned-liberal Hollywood activist Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post, likely met with the greatest amount of pre-launch skepticism. Libertarian Matt Welch snarked at Hit and Run: "The pre-launch Huffington Post continues to be a rich source for the kind of unintentional comedy I haven't enjoyed since watching the likes of Lou Dobbs, C. Everett Koop and Sydney Schanberg go bonkers with dot-com greed back at the end of the last Internet publishing boom." Only the website succeeded, and upon its debut drew praise from ideological adversaries, including Scott Johnson of Power Line. Instead of relying on Hollywood celebs for the majority of their content, Huffington offered a platform for liberal writers to reach a larger audience.

The 2nd was a group effort created by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, called TPM Cafe. While Marshall continues to blog for his site, TPM Cafe brings together policy-oriented liberal journalists, think tankers and readers to the debate issues on the web. Some Dem politicians, including Edwards, have taken up temporary residence at the site's "Table for One" page.

Pajamas Media, briefly known as Open Source Media, was initially announced by co-founder Roger L. Simon on 4/28. While announced as a blog advertising network, that aspect of the company has yet to develop; so far it is best known as a portal website. It's had a rocky start (and as a testament to HuffPo's endurance, PJM has been compared unfavorably with it). As PJM's debut neared, a scorned business partner gained a wide audience by publicizing unflattering details about the business' development. Then their name change ran afoul of another org's trademark, and questions about the business model persist. A blog-based death pool is currently predicting its demise.

MISCELLANY: It Takes A Year To Make A Day (And I Feel Like A Float In The Macy's Day Parade)

• Captain's Quarters played a key role in publishing documents related to the "Adscam" scandal in Canada that helped bring down the gov't of PM Paul Martin. For the effort, his site was banned in Canada for a time; eventuall writing about embargoed testimony on a scandal in Canadian PM Paul Martin's government.
• On 4/29, the Blogometer attended a Time dinner at Metropolitan Club, where managing ed. Jim Kelly led a discussion by now-Slate reporter John Dickerson and Wonkette editor Ana Marie Cox. We covered it for our 5/2 edition.
• In early Sept., we hopped a train to Philly for the 1st annual EschaCon, a convention of, by and for "Atriots" and "Eschatonians," members of the community at Duncan Black's Eschaton. Our full report is located right here.
• One of the most unpopular decisions of the last year was the New York Times' announcement and subsequent implementation of "TimesSelect," a pay-subscription program which effectively removed the newspaper's editorial columnists from the blogosphere. Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum announced that he wouldn't link to it any longer, writing: "I predict that's going to go down with New Coke as one of the all-time bad marketing decisions in history." And frequent Paul Krugman critic Don Luskin realized it would "have the consequence (unintended?) of making it far more difficult for bloggers to dissect Times columns."
• Air America Radio has had money trouble since its inception, but this summer it was revealed that a former exec had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to AAR to the detriment of a Bronx Boys and Girls club. While the NYC press largely ignored the story, radio talker Brian Maloney and Michelle Malkin followed it closely.
• The '04 SD SEN campaign ended with now-Sen. John Thune (R) defeating then Senate Min. Leader Tom Daschle. But over the summer, we reported on what at first seemed to be a burgeoning financial scandal to which Thune might have been attached. But it quickly turned out that not only was there little substance to the charge, but it was being promoted by ex-Daschle staffers, and encouraged by a consultant still on Daschle's payroll. As we termed it in a 7/13 header, "So Basically, SD Is To Bloggers As NJ Is To Consultants."
• Prior to our launch, the political blogosphere claimed 2 very different causalties from the media. In 1/05, conservative bloggers seized on a suggestion by CNN exec Eason Jordan that the U.S. military had deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq. Jordan's remarks were made at Davos, blogged by a participant, and hit the political blogosphere within days (in some sectors, hours). Unable to effectively defend himself and protect the network, Jordan tendered his resignation just 2 weeks later. We weren't around yet, but click here to see all our mentions of Jordan throughout the year. (A few months later, Newspaper Guild pres. Linda Foley made similar remarks; conservative bloggers swarmed her too, but she survived.) The other "victim" was much weirder, and unfolded more or less concurrently: Liberal bloggers zeroed in on Jeff Gannon, an unknown reporter who had asked Bush a ridiculously softball question, and it wasn't long before he was identified as an erstwhile gay prostitute named James Guckert. He too resigned his (less exalted) post and went on to write occasionally for the Washington Blade [note: corrected 12/27] and -- wait for it -- his own blog. Same as with Jordan, click here for everything we have on him.
• For several months earlier in the year, the group blog PoliPundit featured a counter at the top of the page tracking John Kerry's post-election promise on "Meet the Press" to release his militrary records: "[X] days ago, John Kerry promised, on national TV, to sign form SF-180 and release his military records. He has yet to do so." Finally on day 115, in late May, Kerry more or less defused the issue by releasing his records not to the public, but to the Boston Globe. The issue eventually died, but less because Kerry's critics were satisfied than that other issues simply demanded their attention.
• Just a few of our favorite "Lest We Forget" items from the past year: Jim Treacher's all-purpose blog post; WuzzaDem's Andrew Sullivan "Emotional Alert" system; Patriotism gone horribly wrong at America We Stand As One; Video of the local television reporter's natural enemy, the cheese ninja; Politburo Diktat's Pajamas Media competitor, Flannels Media; The truth about HuffPo; Alito's shameful secret and the baseball card to prove it; A method for calculating your blog's worth to AOL; Harriet Miers' Blog!!!; And you've gotta love this thing, even if it doesn't make any sense.

BY THE NUMBERS: Down For The Count

As journalists, we tend not to be numbers people. But we still like counting. Here's a few fun facts about this year's Blogometer, from 3/30 to 12/16:

• Number of editions prior to this one: 175
• Number of words, total: 615,313
• Average Blogometer length: 3,516 words
• Longest edition: 9/6's "The Battle of New Orleans," at 6,866 words
• Shortest edition: 12/14's "Briefing Papers," at 2,213
• What's longer, the entirety of the '05 Blogometer or "Infinite Jest": The Blogometer, but just barely
• Most-cited blog: Daily Kos by a country mile, at 456 links
• Next 9 most-cited blogs: RedState (301), The Corner (212), Power Line (212), Captain's Quarters (211), Michelle Malkin (211), MyDD (208), Eschaton (200), Instapundit (197), HuffPo (176)
• Least-cited blog: Most of them, i.e. all the ones we never linked to.

POSTSCRIPT: Back To The Future

So what happens next year? One thing we're sure of is that blogs will become a major force in the midterm elections. Quite a few have already organized, but many more are coming. In particular, watch for them to take over not just the dissemination of oppo, but also the collection of it. And thanks to the FEC's ruling that even highly partisan blogs are covered by the press exception, watch for more non-profits and ideologically aligned think tanks to get into the blogging business.

Meanwhile, the fact that blogs are becoming more important to communications and logistics outside of politics will only reinforce their importance, even as we cease to realize how pervasive they are. Indeed, watch over the coming year(s) as website re-designs incorporate the tools of blogging. Where the community goes is another question altogether. To follow the bloggers is to follow an often fascinating group of writers and their contentious debates. They're not as easy to romanticize as Hemingway's fellow expats in post-war France, or Dorothy Parker's witty tablemates -- at least not yet. Nevertheless, there is a very real sense of a community -- even there are two distinct halves who have little use for the other. But as new bloggers and new organizations set up shop in the politically-minded corner of the blogosphere, these circles will change. We won't presume to know how. But in 12 months time, the place may look much different than it does now.

Posted by at December 22, 2005 12:56 PM