Left-wing blogs take page from the far right

No U.S. political donor has listed the occupation of “blogger” in federal election cycles dating back to 1990, reveals a search of Federal Election Commission records maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics at OpenSecrets.org.

Oh, how statistics can mislead.

Even though most bloggers don’t earn enough from pontificating online to make a career of it, they have proved themselves a significant political force in 2006.

With newcomer Ned Lamont’s blog-fueled victory over Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate last week, “netroots” progressives staked their claim to real party power in the midterm congressional elections — and perhaps beyond.

In the 1980s, evangelical Christian conservatives organized the takeover of sleepy state Republican parties and soon exercised national political clout far in excess of their numbers. Anti-war bloggers on the left are shaking up the Democratic leadership with similar passionate determination today.

How do bloggers — of all ideological stripes — influence elections? “They efficiently raise money and volunteers, they inspire candidates to run, they bring facts and arguments to light that are then broadcast to actual voters” by the traditional media, writes Slate’s Mickey Kaus on his neoliberal Kausfiles blog.

As a result, politicians now ignore the blogosphere at considerable peril. The smartest ones will start using it as a springboard to victory just as many Republicans (and a few Democrats) have done in recent decades by catering to a base of conservative “values voters.”

But just as mainstream Republicans distance themselves from the most inflammatory rhetoric of the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson even as they tap their deep pools of donors and volunteers, so too will Democrats develop a two-step to dissociate themselves from the sometimes-offensive statements of bloggers while relying on their resources.

Lamont learned that tough lesson when one of the bloggers most supportive of his campaign — West Coast film producer Jane Hamsher — uploaded a faked photo of Lieberman in blackface to the Huffington Post Aug. 2.

Hamsher removed the picture, an apparent jab at the senator for allegedly selling out to the Bush administration, at the Lamont campaign’s request. But the incident helped Lieberman paint lefty bloggers as extremists, and may have narrowed his margin of defeat.

Seeing a possible way to mute the impact of this populist force, Republicans are already tarring the progressive blogosphere with that same brush.

But judging by the staying power of Falwell and Robertson, progressive blogs likely will remain politically potent for years to come.

Drilling down

The right-wing blogosphere just enjoyed a pretty good week as well. Charles Johnson, proprietor of Los Angeles-based Little Green Footballs and co-founder of the conservative Pajamas Media blog network, was tipped off to a suspicious-looking Aug. 5 Reuters photo out of Lebanon. Johnson soon showed it had been doctored to enhance the destructive impact of an Israeli bombing raid on Beirut.

After confirming Lebanese stringer Adnan Hajj used computer software to manipulate multiple images, the London-based news service withdrew every picture it had purchased from him — more than 900 over the past 13 years.

Johnson, who did not respond to a request for an interview, in 2004 helped expose as forgeries documents that CBS News used in reports questioning President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.

The blogger predicted his latest scoop won’t eliminate the use of doctored news photos. However, Johnson told L.A. Weekly, “In the sense that living organisms always adapt and evolve to meet challenges, one immediate effect of the scandal is that people will be more careful when they fake photographs.”

Given Johnson’s impressive track record, though, there’s a good chance he’ll continue spotting doctored shots even if they grow more sophisticated.