Over at his QandO blog, Jon Henke reports today that he’s accepted a job as new media director for the Republican Communications Office in the Senate. Henke most recently worked for Sen. George Allen’s re-election campaign as its new media coordinator.

Henke’s move to Washington gives the Senate GOP a significant addition to their communications arsenal. Don Stewart, communications director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is widely regarded as the best message man on Capitol Hill, waking each day before dawn to e-mail reporters important stories in the news that day.

With Henke, McConnell and the Senate GOP get a top-notch communicator who managed to put out several fires for Allen in the home stretch of the campaign. Had Henke been on the campaign staff before the infamous “macaca” incident, there’s no question in my mind he would have been able to contain the damage.

After the election, Henke spoke at on a panel I moderated at the Virginia Conservative Convention in Richmond, Va. It was at that event I realized how significant a role he could have played had Allen’s team not waited so long to hire someone to work with bloggers.

Therefore, I applaud McConnell for bringing in Henke at the beginning of the 110th Congress when he can hit the ground running.

The move also illustrates that Republicans are finally starting to realize the positive impact bloggers can have when trying to craft a message and effectively communicate it to an audience that doesn’t want to be treated the same way as the press corps.

Take, for instance, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s courting of the bloggers. As the Boston Globe reported yesterday, Romney is making a full-court pitch to conservative bloggers, a move that could pay off big time when Republican voters are trying to figure out who to vote for in ‘08.

Bloggers are similar to the knowledgeable neighbor down the street you turn to when you’re wondering who to support for the school board. You may not be closely following the school board election, but chances are you can trust the advice of your neighbor. Bloggers have that same power, which makes their advice even more important than some TV ad or an editorial in the local paper.

When I asked Romney about his hiring of a full-time blogger, Stephen Smith, he clearly understood its significance.

I think that the opinion leaders in the country, particularly those in primaries, are people who are very involved on the Internet and are watching the blogs and seeing what’s being said. They’re getting ahead of the news cycle by oftentimes weeks. And that kind of lead and that kind of awareness is very powerful in a primary setting, where the voters tend to be well informed and very involved in party politics.

Not to be outdone, Romney’s rivals also have their own people dealing with bloggers. Sen. John McCain, for instance, employs Spencer Whelan, formerly of APCO Worldwide, and Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits, who works as a consultant. Don’t be surprised to see former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani make the next move. With his two main rivals already aggressively courting bloggers, he can’t afford to wait.