As noted here recently, Steven Johnson has suggested that political blogs may be “a journalistic flotation device.”

Well, last night’s This American Life asked the (im)pertinent question: what happened to the Intelligence reports which concluded that Iraq would only be a threat if we went to war against them and backed Saddam Hussein into a corner? Why haven’t political bloggers kept that story afloat? Instead, it surfaced in October and promptly fell back out of public consciousness.

Maybe this is another distinction between “politics” and “policy.” For me, the distinction was crystallized with the publication of the notorious DiIulio letter, in which a former White House staffer decried the heavy imbalance in energy expended on politics &emdash; spinning public opinion and winning votes &emdash; as opposed to policy &emdash; real government action about something more than maintaining power.

Maybe “political bloggers” are guilty of the same bias — badgering Trent Lott from office is political activity, not policy activity. I’m sure there are “political bloggers” who oppose the war — why aren’t they keeping the story about the divide between the CIA and the White House “afloat?”