The latest initiative in congress: Blogging

New York Times, Feb. 24, 2005, E4
by Brian Wingfield

AS he stood inside the National Cathedral at President Reagan's funeral last June, Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, typed a stirring message into his BlackBerry.
''My wife and I stand amidst the most powerful people in the world,'' it read. ''We have stood beside presidents and princes, prime ministers and leaders of every stripe but that is not what moved us these past two hours. There was the undeniable presence of the Spirit of the Lord in this place and it was a sweet presence.'' As hymns echoed through the cathedral, ''the casket swept by to our right, and tears filled my eyes.''
Later that afternoon, that message was posted on Mr. Pence's blog. ''We got wonderful feedback,'' he said in a recent interview.
Blogging, the Web-based craft of diary-keeping and commentary, is taking root on Capitol Hill.
The nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation, which helps educate Congress on running its business, says at least four members -- Mr. Pence; Representatives Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, and Katherine Harris, Republican of Florida; and Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont -- have taken up the task on a continuing basis. (Others have used temporary blogs to document trips, said Brad Fitch, the foundation's deputy director.)
The Congressional bloggers praise the power, popularity and potential of blogging, citing it as one of the most frequently visited parts of their Congressional Web sites.
''It shows your constituents that you're going to be updating your Web site regularly, and the next time they log on, they will see something new,'' Mr. Kirk said.
While popular political blogs like Wonkette, MyDD and Daily Kos serve as an alternative to traditional news sources and allow their authors to purvey commentary, Congressional blogs are extremely tame. In many cases, staff members -- not the legislators themselves -- post entries, and they rarely link to other blogs, as most blogs do.
Mr. Fitch said that did not disqualify the Congressional efforts as blogs. ''I don't think there is a definition of blogging,'' he said. ''There are quite a lot of restrictions on what members of Congress are allowed to put up on their Web site or send to their constituents in any sort of mass media way.''
For Ana Marie Cox, editor of Wonkette, blogging has a very loose definition. In a recent interview, she said her only criterion was that ''it is updated regularly.''
''Do we want government to define what blogging is?'' she asked rhetorically.
That said, the range of Congressional blogging is vast.
Mr. Leahy's blog, More From the Floor, is a real-time account of Senate events. Updated by two staff members, it includes a link to send e-mail to Mr. Leahy and one allowing readers to be notified of any new posting.
It can sometimes have the flavor of a lesson in how a bill becomes a law. On Feb. 15, the blog walked readers through the confirmation of the new homeland security chief. ''Today the Senate will be debating the nomination of Michael Chertoff to be Secretary of Homeland Security,'' said an entry time-stamped 11:32 a.m. ''A vote on the nomination is expected around 4:00.''
In a recent interview, Mr. Leahy said the purpose of the blog from the beginning had been to keep people attuned to ''the nation's front porch,'' the Senate floor. ''It only works if people can be on the porch,'' he said.
Ms. Cox said the absence of Mr. Leahy's opinion did not necessarily disqualify it as a blog. ''Real time?'' she said. ''That seems pretty bloggy to me.''
Mr. Kirk's blog, begun Jan. 9, is essentially a continuing account of his official activities. Many entries editorialize on policy issues. For example, from Feb. 17: ''As we work to maintain a stable democracy in Afghanistan, we must move quickly to prevent a narco-state from emerging.'' Or, from Jan. 28: ''The Federal Railroad Administration is just a couple steps away from imposing a costly train whistle regulation on our communities.'' The entry from Jan. 31 links to the blog of an Iraqi voter, who chronicles his experience in last month's election.
Mr. Pence's blog is somewhat more personalized. Begun in May, it serves standard public-relations functions, linking to editorials he wrote and providing transcripts to his appearances on talk shows. But it also serves as something of an Internet diary.
His entry for Dec. 13 describes his trip to Afghanistan, when he ''took a roller coaster helicopter ride on a CH-53 Super Stallion through the mountains around Jalalabad.'' An October entry announced the wedding of a staff member. In July, Mr. Pence wrote about taking his son to meet the former astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Mr. Pence said a staff member spent 30 to 60 minutes each day updating the blog, but the entries also say who posted them. ''Anything that is personally submitted is always me,'' he said.
Ms. Harris began her blog late last month. ''It's kind of a collective group of ideas,'' she said in a telephone interview from Florida. A Feb. 17 entry explains why she started: ''Blogging is doing for the written word what digital cameras and cellphone/cameras have done for the photographed image.''
Mr. Fitch of the Congressional Management Foundation said he believed that members of Congress who do not blog ''are missing the boat.''
''It's an opportunity for them to match up with constituents in their district, virtually free of charge,'' he said.
At this stage, he added, members of Congress are primarily experimenting with blogs as a creative means to reach voters, not as a way to attract the attention of the blogosphere -- the bloggers' realm, which can sometimes be an incubator of ideas and news. ''The Hill has yet to really reach that level of sophistication'' with the Internet, he said, but ''there are people that do get it.''
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has urged his colleagues to take advantage of blogging. At a West Virginia retreat for Congressional Republicans last month, Mr. Thune led a workshop on blogs that ''generated a considerable amount of discussion,'' he said in an interview.
For the moment, however, he does not have his own blog. Mr. Thune said he was considering creating one, but would wait until he finished moving into his new Capitol Hill office to make a decision.
''It's a function of time,'' he said. ''If you're going to keep it fresh, you have to be posting fairly regularly.''
Carol C. Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University, said Congressional blogging had great potential because the readers are information devotees who will most likely tell others about what they read. ''They will magnify your voice and disseminate your message,'' she said.
Ms. Darr said she did not think the low number of Congressional bloggers reflected a lack of interest.
''At one time, there were only three people with Web sites, too,'' she said.