Blogs Meet Politicos

[Annie]

This is too funny. One of the Powerline bloggers was able to question Dickie Durbin, who was clueless as usual.

Media Culture
Pajamawha?

Score one for Powerline's Paul Mirengoff, who asked Sen. Dick Durbin some tough questions about the NSA hearings today. Durbin, as public figures sometimes do when they're under pressure, tried to make Mirengoff's credentials an issue:

Q: But the attorney general says FISA allows intercepts that are otherwise authorized by statue. And he also says that that was authorized in the authorization of force act.

DURBIN: That's his argument. You've just repeated it.

Q: Well, why don't - if you disagree with that argument, why don't you go on the floor and try to get a vote and have the Senate say whether or not the authorization of force - with all force necessary-

DURBIN: No, you've got it wrong. You've got it wrong. I don't know - who do you work for, incidentally?

Q: Powerline and Pajamas Media.

DURBIN: Jamas Media?

Q: Pajamas Media.

DURBIN: Pajama Media?

Q: And Powerline.

DURBIN: Okay, I'm sorry I wasn't familiar with your publication. But I will just tell you this: the argument is the Constitution spells out the powers of the president, as well as the powers of the legislative branch and the judicial branch. And statutes will be followed if, in fact, they put exclusive authority. That's was FISA does. It creates the word ""exclusive means" - exclusive authority. And they are reading more into it now than the statute obviously allows.

Q: But did you hear Gonzales say-

DURBIN: I'll check out Pajamaline, but I'm not familiar with your publication.

Q: Yeah. Dan Rather knows something about it. (laughter)

The "who do you work for" defense isn't going to work anymore, but my guess is that politicians will be using it more often as bloggers start doing original reporting and covering live events. Why? Because bloggers often come from the ranks of working professionals — in this case, a lawyer — and will be drawn to covering areas where they can legitimately claim some expertise. Professional journalists are asked to jump from issue to issue, often with little time to study in between. When I covered the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong, I noticed that the most challenging questions came from writers for trade publications who knew the issues cold. Bloggers combine that expertise with a passion for politics, and that can lead to some very challenging questions for politicians.

As blogs are become more mainstream, pols will lose their ability to laugh off questions from bloggers, whether their name is silly (Pajamas Media) or highly sophisticated (The Media Blog).

Powerline, for those that 'don't know' were instrumental, along with Little Greenfootballs, in proving CBS faked the documents that Rather was using, perhaps pushing the election to Bush.