For the past few months I’ve been quietly working with John Solomon, executive editor of The Washington Times, on the launch of a new website that brings together blogging and social media to advance the meritocracy of ideas for conservatives.

Appropriately, it’s called TheConservatives.com. The site launched in September and features contributors such as my boss, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner, former Reps. Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr and Ernest Istook, talk-show host Michael Reagan, and Jeri Thompson, wife for former presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

Under the direction of editor Brian Faughnan, we’ve been reporting on everything from the upcoming elections on Nov. 3 to the public policy debates on Capitol Hill. And with ace Times reporter (and former Human Events colleague) Amanda Carpenter contributing daily, the quality of content is top notch.

The website is powered by Movable Type’s new software called Motion (watch the video to learn how it works). By bringing together one of the most popular blogging platforms with the power of Motion’s social media aggregation, we’re able to track what conservatives are saying in real time.

My favorite aspect of the site is the “Right People” section, which features a live stream of social media updates from networks such as Twitter, YouTube, Delicious and Flickr — plus about 70 others. We’re tracking social media activity from our contributors plus people such as Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson, Patrick Ruffini, Mary Katharine Ham, Ed Morrissey, and Reps. Eric Cantor, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan.

According to Six Apart chief executive Chris Alden, TheConservatives.com is the first political website to utilize its Motion platform. (Check out Bike Hugger for another example of how this is being used in another space.)

The launch of TheConservatives.com coincides with the Times’ tremendous growth under Solomon’s direction. Over the past year, traffic to WashingtonTimes.com increased 500% and the site now ranks 12th in traffic among U.S. newspapers (a year ago it was 216th).

Solomon spoke at yesterday’s Bloggers Briefing at Heritage (listen to the recording or watch AIM’s video) about the Times’ growth from a handful of distribution channels to a media company that no longer limits itself to just a newspaper. One year ago it had four ways of delivering the news; today it has 52 channels for its news. TheConservatives.com is one example.

Solomon said he envisions TheConservatives.com advancing a meritocracy of ideas generated from people across America: “Most conservatives speak down to the masses and then it gets disseminated to the grassroots. We wanted to reverse engineer the process. We wanted to build a tool that would empower them to speak up to the top leadership of their movement.”

I hope you’ll check out the site and let me know what you think in the comments below or by sending me an email. And if you’re interested in contributing, make sure you mention that as well.