Outside the Beltway

Bloggers at the Gates

James Joyner · Sunday, March 12, 2006 · 3 comments

NYT editorial writer Adam Cohen has a glowing review of Crashing the Gate, which he describes as “a smart new book by two leading bloggers . . . Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of the liberal blog dailykos.com, and Jerome Armstrong, founder of myDD.com.”

We learn that “Much of the authors’ criticism of the party establishment is dead-on.” He gushes, “The netroots’ power comes from the same network effect that made eBay a retailing phenomenon. Far-flung political activists now join together on sites like dailykos.com, and inject themselves into matters that used to be settled behind closed doors.”

For all the talk about having to crash gates, the netroots are well on their way to becoming insiders. Mr. Armstrong is an adviser to the political action committee of Mark Warner, a leading candidate for president in 2008. When dailykos holds an offline convention this June in Las Vegas, Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, will be a speaker.

The Democratic establishment could not hold the netroots back even if it wanted to. Their ability to raise money, recruit volunteers and shape the debate will make them indispensable. What “Crashing the Gates” is short on is policy: ideas for providing health care, improving education, and all the other things that make it important which party wins. As the gates swing open, that should be the next item on the agenda.

Well, most political bloggers on both sides of the aisle focus on agenda rather than strategy, so there is little need to rewrite the agenda. Of course, considering that the brilliant netroots keep coming up with the likes of Howard Dean as the best candidate for president and face of the party, why anyone would heed their policy advice is beyond me.