A Capitol Hill Presence in the Blogosphere

WaPo reported Lawmakers Try to Balance Value of Openness With The Medium's Blunt Tone - Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).... is one of a small but growing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have tried their hands at blogging. More than a dozen have launched blogs or blog-like pages on their official Web sites in an apparent effort to sidestep the mainstream media and, like thousands -- possibly, millions -- of other Americans, take their stories directly to the public.

Some of the congressional sites, such as Patty's Blog From the Middle East, are short-lived, beginning and ending with a trip overseas. Others are permanent. Some are updated daily. Others, once in a while. The sites, invariably, are much tamer than other, well-known blogs. There is no fire-breathing partisanship. No snarky dishing. No soul-searching confessionals. In fact, some appear to be little more than news releases strung together to look like a blog.

Only one lawmaker, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), allows readers to post comments on his site.

This item just shows me how the Washington Post totally does not understand blogs. It says that Tom Tancredo is the only one of several blogs that allows readers to post comments on his site, yet even on that site we see "Blog entries are reviewed and not all messages will be posted", and Tom's "Blog" does not have any of the normal characteristics of a true blog. There are no "Permalinks", i.e. unique URLs for each of his posts, so that someone wanting to post something on their blog that links to something Tom said, cannot do so. Interestingly there is a permalink for the comments, for example on 03/04/05 2:27 pm Tom posted

I find it hard to believe that we are one of the only offices on Capitol Hill that offers a blog forum for constituents... Check out this recent article:
(Full article inside)

Why Congress Doesn't Blog...And a Few Members Who Do
By Molly Chapman Norton, 03/02/2005 - 12:17pm
http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/403/#norton

That is exactly they way his item was posted. It should have had a permalink, like this, and the title of the referenced article should have been a hot link, like this:

I find it hard to believe that we are one of the only offices on Capitol Hill that offers a blog forum for constituents... Check out this recent article: Why Congress Doesn't Blog...And a Few Members Who Do By Molly Chapman Norton, 03/02/2005 - 12:17pm

Interestingly although Tom's words do not have a permalink, there is a permalink to the comments, so if you want to read the comments to this item you can click here. Tom does permit comments, but only comments he likes, he does not provide a permalink to what he says, so that it can be easily referenced on someone else's blog, he does not have an RSS Feed (all true Blogs have that), and he does not have a trackback, where other bloggers that blog about him can leave a link to their posts, both for Tom to read, and for his readers to see comments on other blogs about Tom.

Mustang Bobby blogged The latest fad to hit Capitol Hill is blogging. Senators and Representatives are trying to join the fray to attract the attention of their constituents...or just trying to sit at the Cool Kid's table.... To quote the immortal Jimmy Durante, "Everybody wants to get in on the act." But you really can't count yourself as a real blogger unless you do at least some of it in your pajamas (or whatever your version of sleepwear is, and no, I don't need the details), you allow comments on your site, you link to other real blogs, and you post pictures of your pets.

Paul blogged Will Congress Give Good Blog?