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Five Questions for Walter Alarkon of The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room

I first met Walter Alarkon last year when he was working for Politics magazine on a story about conservative online activism. Through a number of interviews and meetings, I came to respect the depth of his reporting. Walter was clearly interested in the dynamics of the blogosphere and penned a nice story about the right’s online challenges.

As he was finishing that story, Walter told me he was leaving the magazine to work on a new online project for The Hill newspaper. That project turned out to be The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, a great site that parses out what’s happening in the blogosphere and offers a roundup seven days a week (with multiple updates during the workweek).

Having tried to do something similar at Human Events with my good friend Matt Lewis several years ago — we called it the Rightometer — I know the challenges that Walter faces. Fortunately, he’s working at an outfit that is devoted to making the project a success. I asked him about it and his views on conservative vs. liberal bloggers. My five questions are below.

1) What is your goal for The Hill’s Briefing Room, and who is your target audience?

We have two goals. One is to capture what’s going on in the political blogosphere. We do that in the center column of our site, with our blog round-ups. Sites like RealClearPolitics, The Note and The Hotline have done a great job of covering what’s out there in the political press, with the blogosphere sometimes included. We hope to flesh out everything interesting to those on Capitol Hill going on in the blogs.

The other goal is to find news tidbits of interest to folks on Capitol Hill. Though The Hill already has the daily paper, the Web site and two other blogs, there’s some news that’s not a perfect fit for any of those vehicles. Stories that involve raw material that can’t be seen in newsprint, like the “Macaca” moment, Hillary’s answer on driver’s licenses or Freedom’s Watch latest ad, can be told through our blog. It also gives us the capability of quickly putting up an item or linking to another blog that’s generating buzz.

2) In writing about the blogosphere, how do you go about choosing which sources are credible and worth citing on a daily basis?

You can tell when a blog does its homework by looking at the links. The best blogging is like the best reporting in that it involves sourcing out material and trying to be as transparent and responsive to readers and sources as possible. Two blogs that do it right are TalkingPointsMemo and Power Line. TPM has done work that any journalist would be proud of with its coverage of the dismissals of U.S. attorneys. More recently, Power Line has asked trenchant questions about Sen. Barack Obama’s connections.

When I start looking at blogs in the morning — I try to start at 6 a.m. — it’s quickly evident which stories I need to link to. The top bloggers all read each other, and they’re generous in linking to posts on other sites that they find interesting. For instance, when “Bittergate” broke, many bloggers linked to Marc Ambinder’s post that did a great job of foreshadowing the debate. Posts like that one are obvious candidates for our round-ups.

Also, when a certain piece of legislation is the talk of Congress, we look for blogs that are also talking about it. Those blogs help flesh out the debate when some of the players in the Senate or House may be unwilling to show all of their cards. That happened with Nancy Pelosi’s delay of the vote on the Colombia free trade agreement. While everyone knew that Pelosi wasn’t enamored with the deal, bloggers like Open Left’s David Sirota parsed Pelosi’s words and blogged about the wiggle room she left herself with that could allow Democrats to support the measure later on.

3) Which blogs do the best job covering Congress and which have the most influence on the Hill?

Daily Kos and RedState are the ones with the most influence, something that keeps them among the best. Bloggers like mcjoan on Kos and Pejman Yousefzadeh on RedState have made a difference in how activists on their sides view the bill. What they write often ends up in stories in our paper and elsewhere.

For instance, mcjoan, who knows all about FISA, has kept a close eye on Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, worried that he and Blue Dogs will cave on telecom immunity. Last week, Alex Bolton ended up writing about where Hoyer and the Blue Dogs stand. Yousefzadeh has dissecting the Democrats’ arguments against free trade deals. He and other RedState bloggers have also helped give House candidates like Pete Olson in Rep. Nick Lampson’s district credibility among conservatives by featuring them in their posts.

4) What members of Congress are leading the way in the new media sphere?

Those running for office tend to lead the way. I think it’s due largely to the idea that they know that they have to adapt to the latest, or risk losing campaigns. We’ve seen it with Obama and Rep. Ron Paul; without the online fundraising they’ve received, they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they did.

We’re also seeing members of Congress using videos more effectively. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had a video about health care that Ezra Klein linked to that helped explain his health care plan. It was easier to watch that video on Klein’s blog and see what Klein read than download a fact sheet from Wyden’s home page.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and Mark Warner are also leaders in using technology. If Warner gets into office, he could become the most tech-savvy senator, having really courted bloggers for his aborted presidential campaign and having run a technology company himself.

5) Much has been written about the right’s desire to keep pace with the left online. Do you think there is still a disparity or has the gap been narrowed?

There’s still a gap, but it’s not as simple as the left being better than the right. Liberal bloggers are miles ahead of conservative ones when it comes to fundraising; look at how the Democratic presidential and congressional candidates are blowing their Republican opponents out of the water. It’s thanks in large part to ActBlue. David All is trying to do the same thing for the right with Slatecard, but he’s starting a few years behind, and the fundraising numbers reflect that.

The left is also better at online activism. Markos Moulitsas, Matt Stoller and Jerome Armstrong have had followings for a few years now. They’ve been part of campaigns themselves, which means that they have a good sense of how to organize the grassroots and have the make a difference. Erick Erickson and the folks at RedState are also trying to do similar things with their action alerts.

But the right hasn’t had the need to develop these online tools as quickly as Democrats because they’ve been in power and because they’ve had other tools, talk radio being the most prominent. And few should underestimate the right’s ability to use viral video. Conservatives online used it to weaken Sen. John Kerry (with the Swift Boat and windsurfing ads) and perhaps Obama, with the Rev. Wright clips.

So the bottom line is that the left is good at some things and the right is good at others. But the left has had a head start because they’ve had to develop these tools the past few years to counteract the advantages of incumbency and on talk radio.

Turning Up the Heat on Global Warming Alarmists

Today marks the beginning of Americans for Prosperity’s Hot Air Tour across six cities in middle America. On the heels of its successful Ending Earmarks Express tour, AFP has shifted gears to shine the spotlight on global warming. Follow the progress CostofHotAir.com.

AFP’s activism is just one of several new projects under way to combat global warming alarmists and the forthcoming Lieberman-Warner climate change bill in Congress. With notable conservatives such as Newt Gingrich and John McCain sounding more like Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi these days, there’s reason to be concerned.

One of the best resources for the latest news on global warming is a new blog called The Chilling Effect. It combines hard news and research with editorial cartoons and other buzz on the subject. I encourage you to keep an eye on it.

This blog and other websites like it (including the valuable GlobalWarming.org) will serve as important sources of information as conservatives prepare to fight the costly Lieberman-Warner climate change bill. An early analysis of the bill done by my colleagues at Heritage shows just how damaging it would be to our economy.

Congressman Mike Pence Reports From Iraq

I just finished watching a couple of unedited videos from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) about his recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. The former radio talk-show host was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to get a glimpse of the two countries. Pence does a terrific job bring us the facts from the ground on his blog and on YouTube.

Part one of Pence’s visit to the Haditha market:

Part two of Pence’s visit to the Haditha market:

The Website Earmarxists Don’t Want You to See

The congressional website earmarkreform.house.gov may soon fall victim to a nearly 10-year-old House rule governing online activity. If the website is axed, it will serve as an embarrassing example of just how behind the times our lawmakers are.

Today in my Townhall column, I explain why this is a perfect opening to dust off the Open House Project recommendations and make some substantiative changes in Congress.

Talked Out of Retirement

Congratulations are in order for Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), who decided today to run for re-election after announcing his retirement from Congress last week. It took an outpouring of support from constituents, colleagues and conservatives, including Heritage’s Ed Feulner, who broke with tradition and signed a coalition letter urging Shadegg to reconsider. (Read my personal plea to Shadegg.) Hats off to everyone who made it happen, especially my fellow RedState contributors Ben Domenech and Erick Erickson, who led the charge in the blogosphere.

Travel Industry Tries to Rip Off Taxpayers

Jeffrey Birnbaum has an outstanding piece in today’s Washington Post about the inner workings of lobbying effort from the travel industry to persuade the U.S. government to spend $200 million on a tourism marketing campaign — a massive boondoggle that was fortunately stopped by taxpayer watchdogs such as Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

Hat tip to Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner for calling attention to the article. Tapscott noted that Bruce Kesler of the Democracy Project has previously reported much of the story on his blog.

What You Need to Know About the Newest Appropriator

When it comes to pork-barrel politics, I have no patience for Washington’s business-as-usual ways. So when House Republicans chose to appoint a professional porker, Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama, to the Appropriations Committee, I decided to express my disappointment with a tough-love column for Townhall about the Bonner appointment and the fallout from it.

Even though Bonner has promised to clean up his act as a result of his new assignment, we must hold him to his word. Too often in Washington it’s easy for someone’s empty rhetoric to overshadow an abysmal record. And because Bonner has a pretty bad record on earmarks, I’m naturally suspicious.

I would have preferred Reps. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) or Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) for the plum committee assignment instead. But alas, the Porkbusters do not run the show — at least not yet — in Congress. Until then, the best we can do is educate Americans about the choices our representatives are making, and what those decisions might mean for our tax dollars.

Senator and Colonel: Lindsey Graham’s Other Duty

My brother-in-law and some of his fellow JAG officers got to meet Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, this week during his 10-day stint in Iraq. Graham has donned a military uniform three times in the past year, becoming the only member of Congress to serve in Iraq. Stars and Stripes has the story.

Boehner’s Perfect Pick for Civil Rights Panel

House Minority Leader John Boehner appointed my Heritage Foundation colleague Todd Gaziano to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today. I had the opportunity to sit down with Todd and ask him a few questions about his new gig. The interview is posted on RedState.

During my stint at Cybercast News Service, and to a lesser extent when I was at Human Events, the commission provided plenty of material. Former chairwoman Mary Frances Berry was an absolute disgrace and drove the commission to the brink of irrelevance on more than one occasion.

Since her departure, Gerald Reynolds and Abigail Thernstrom have done an outstanding job to put the commission back on track. The commission’s staff director, Ken Marcus, up until his recent resignation, also paved the way to restoring confidence in the commission.

Gaziano fills a seat vacated by Jennifer Braceras. His appointment is effective immediately.

UPDATE — Feb. 9, 7:59 p.m.: I posted video from the House floor of Gaziano’s appointment on YouTube.

Porkbusting Goes Primetime

Seven minutes into his final State of the Union address, President Bush declared war on earmarks. It took him seven years and came after significant expense to taxpayers, but it was a sign that official Washington might finally be waking up to the problems of pork-barrel politics. Read my Townhall column today to find out why.