The Advocate’s Brian Lockhart explores the twin peaks of blogging, the political flunkies who write blogs and the the political flunkies who read blogs, and post comments. And from the Log Lady: “Sometime ideas, like men, jump up and say ‘hello’. They introduce themselves, these ideas, with words. Are they words? These ideas speak so strangely.

Having been around the ‘net for an eternity, the concept of blogs as a new medium in politics is rather amusing. Bulletin Boards begat Forums begat ListServes begat Web Sites begat Blogs, or something like that.

“All that we see in this world is based on someone’s ideas. Some ideas are destructive, some are constructive. Some ideas can arrive in the form of a dream.”–Log Lady

So we have this:

Though elected officials regularly find themselves the subject of blog discussions, O’Brien is one of the few lawmakers who not only participates in online discourse but also maintains his own blog.

“Elected officials seem to be slow on the uptake on this,” said state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, who began participating in political blogs this year.

That could be changing. House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said there have been discussions in their respective caucuses about establishing legislative blogs and hiring bloggers.

Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, who lives in Stamford, has been blogging. A spokesman for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell said she is open to the idea.

“The governor recognizes blogging as an emerging means of communications, and she would certainly consider participating in a live blog, if asked,” Rell spokesman Chris Cooper said.

Followed by:

Gary Rose and John Orman, professors of politics at Sacred Heart and Fairfield universities, respectively, said elected office should be held to a higher standard when blogging.

“If you were say a gardener blogging on how to raise roses, I have no problem” with anonymity, Orman said. “But if you’re a politician, you should use your name when you’re talking about your job.”

Rose said he finds the idea of public officials posting anonymously “disturbing” and “unseemly.”

“These are people whose decisions affect many more people than themselves,” Rose said. “They have to be held accountable for their thoughts and positions. The word ‘public’ connotes that they should be public, not anonymous.”

Orman noted that if a politicians’ comments were traced back to them, as was the case with Mackey, it could prove damaging.

State Rep. Tim O’Brien, D-New Britain, who has his own blog, said he has occasionally posted under a different handle.

O’Brien said he would not want to see the anonymity of blogs abused, but also would not want to see it abolished, including for lawmakers.

“Anonymity and the ability to get information out to the public is an important thing,” he said. “I think when there’s something that has to be said, it should be said.”

The yin and yang of the blog world. Do the armies of politicians advance ideas as part of the their media strategy, and embrace the medium? Or do they mingle in the crowds and interact with the anonymity feeling out the man on the street for the pulse of concerns?

I think its always good to have both the anonymous and the named milling through the comments. There, ideas have found an outlet for expression that can compete in this marketplace of pixels. Some of them good some of them not, but the they gain traction when people talk about them, and fall away into irrelevance when people ignore them. I disagree with Gary Rose, politicians should not be held accountable for their thoughts. No one should be held to a standard that would ever deny experimentation, exploration or investigation of new ideas. WIth that lofty standard comes the realization that sometimes on the Internet, no one will know you are really a dog. But the Internet is not the end all solution to exposing someone’s canine or carnal instincts.

All that is new is old again. In many ways, the Internet era as like the Reformationists era, knowledge spreading beyond the church of idealogy, and the keepers of the modern scriptoriums titter and the muttering retreats.

Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question..
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
–T.S. Eliot

source: Advocate State politicians are still neophytes in world of blogging By Brian Lockhart, Jul 29, 2007

source: Advocate Politicians wrestle with going anonymous on blogs
By Brian Lockhart, Jul 29, 2007