Open Left favors an Open Internet
This may cause my friend Jeremy some dismay, but he gets a hat tip for this link:
Democrat Michael Capuano Tries to Stop Members of Congress from Using the Internet
Speaker Pelosi weighed in on the matter:
“We share the goal of modernizing the antiquated franking regulations to address the rapidly changing realities of communications in the internet age. Like many other Members, I have a blog, use YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Digg, and other new media to communicate with constituents, and I believe they are vital tools toward increasing transparency and accountability.”
So Pelosi is good on this stuff, as she should be. She has an exceptionally talented New Media staff who can do great work because there are no Franking Restrictions on leadership offices. The right is largely correct on the substance of their claims, though they are making some partisan accusations that aren’t grounded in a real understanding the problem. Soren Dayton at the Next Right asserts that Pelosi is violating the rules through her use of social media, because he didn’t know that leadership offices aren’t subjected to the rules. What is actually going on is that Pelosi’s excellent use of blogging, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Digg is unwittingly providing an extremely successful pilot for how members and committees can and should use the web to interact.
I had not realized that either and I thank Matt Stoller for the information in his post. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi uses her considerable authority to push through better, common sense, rules for the House to allow rank and file members to have the online presence that she has created, I’ll be more than happy to retract my previous remarks and apologize.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
You’re a good man, Mark. I hope some of the other conservative bloggers that have stoked the flames on this non-story do the same.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Thanks for the hat tip. I still think you and Matt have both missed the boat on this one, but I have to say that Matt (who is one of my blogging heroes) has missed it worse. Unlike you, he slammed Capuano without linking to his statement or allowing him to defend himself. In fact I see no evidence that he has even read Capuano’s comments.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Oh, and I know you still don’t believe me that Culberson is grandstanding, but FYI — he now has less than half the cash-on-hand of his Democratic opponent (hat tip). In 2006, Culberson underperformed President Bush’s 2004 margin of victory by 4 points against a Democrat who did little more than put his name on the ballot. This is a district that was represented by Bill Archer and George H. W. Bush, and Culberson is sweating hard. Don’t be surprised if this little tempest-in-a-teapot becomes a key part of his reelection campaign in a couple of months.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:56 am
FYI, Matt’s now got a far more detailed post on this.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:48 am
I join you Mark in waiting to see the outcome. If it means better common sense rules and unrestricted access for all, they I will join you in in appologies.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Thanks again Jeremy – aside from Capuano per se, I can see from Matt’s post that he has been working on this issue for a long time and is frustrated with the anachronistic rules and bureaucratic mindset of some House members. I can relate – I see similar things in education with people of a certain temperment and generational outlook who don’t "get" tech and are uncomfortable with other ppl having free access to communicate or access information on principle.
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Culberson I’m sure had his political interests in mind here. So did Capuano whose influence would stand to increase significantly if the Franking Commission becomes the internet clearinghouse for the Congress. Nature of the game however I prefer grandstanding to get good rules over grandstanding to get poor ones. Right now we have poor ones and Capuano’s are no improvement, in my view.