Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, shown talking to Del Sol High School students in May, also keeps in touch with Nevada constituents through his Web site at www.giveemhellharry.com. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
This is Jim Gibbons: Republican congressman and candidate for Nevada governor. Some people may be confused. Photo by Jeff Scheid.
This is Jim Gibson: Henderson mayor and likely Democratic candidate for governor. Photo by Ronda Churchill.
The king of the filibuster tabled the talking on his blog for a few days last week.
Sen. Harry Reid's foray into the lively debate of the blogosphere (www.giveemhellharry.com/blog) was stymied when his Web site got inundated by comments from readers of a conservative Weblog.
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It all started Sept. 30 after conservative blogger Michelle Malkin posted a Review-Journal article about the indictment of Willie Davis, the pastor of Second Baptist Church in Las Vegas, on her Web site -- www.michellemalkin.com. The article detailed federal grant money Davis and his wife are accused of using for their personal benefit. Reid secured the grant for the church.
Malkin, a syndicated columnist and Fox News Network contributor, told her readers they also could check out Reid's new blog. She put a link to his site saying that her readers should post messages on the Reid blog.
Boy, did they.
Reid's blog had offered readers a chance to post their own comments on his site. But when Malkin's readers came over and began posting comments under a Reid item about a billboard, it was enough to stop traffic.
On each of Reid's subsequent posts, including a Rosh Hashana greeting, the comment link was removed.
Hugh Jackson, who runs the local blog www.lasvegasgleaner.com, first noticed that Reid had removed the comment section from his blog.
The Review-Journal decided to find out why Reid did that and started by reading the 82 comments that, at the time, were the last ones on the giveemhellharry blog.
The 82nd comment, submitted by "Sean from Seattle," suggested Malkin was a hypocrite for inviting her readers to "leave harassing comments here WHEN SHE WON'T ALLOW COMMENTS ON HER BLOG." The post also calls Malkin "a whore."
In an interview, Malkin suggested Reid's staff left that comment in cyberspace to attack her even as many more conservative posts were purged from Reid's blog.
"It's the Wild West sometimes in the blogosphere," Malkin said, adding that she does not post a comment section because of "overwhelming spam that I get from my political detractors."
Malkin said she can understand if the senator edits his site for profanity. But she said she can't understand why about 50 comments sent to Reid's blog by her readers -- and also subsequently e-mailed to her -- were not posted.
"Scores of comments were purged from his site. Meanwhile, he lets the one remain that is calling a journalist a whore because they disagree with my view," Malkin said.
Erik Smith, a spokesman for Friends of Harry Reid, said the comment section was removed after Malkin provided the link to Reid's blog and "we had a problem with people posting offensive pictures."
Shortly after the Review-Journal asked Smith about the removal of the comment section Friday, Reid's blog again began accepting comments.
Jackson said he was a journalist for 12 years before he launched his blog, and he has never felt closer to his audience. The interactivity afforded by a blog has helped him connect his personal views with those who agree and disagree with him.
His advice for Reid was to put the comment section back up. And the lasvegasgleaner blog immediately reported it Friday when Reid did.
"Go ahead and open the doors and let them have a donnybrook in the comment section," Jackson said. "If he wants his site to be lively and reach out to people so they donate to Senate candidates, I think he should open up. It'll boost his traffic."
When Reid's site did begin accepting comments again Friday afternoon, a decent discourse on energy independence ensued.
The whore comment wasn't removed.
GIBBONS OR GIBSON?
You say Gibson and I say Gibbons. Gibbons-Gibson, let's call the whole thing off.
For weeks, consultants, campaign managers, voters and reporters have been over-enunciating the names of the two gubernatorial candidates.
Spokesmen for both campaigns say it's getting ridiculous.
"I am constantly stressing the second syllable, GibBONS,'' said Robert Uithoven, who works for the Republican congressman.
"We'll have to really just let voters know who he is," said Greg Bortolin, who works for Gibson, a Democrat and mayor of Henderson.
Maybe everyone should start referring to their day jobs.
If we all say Congressman Gibbons and Mayor Gibson, or even just the congressman and the mayor, we'll all be fine. Unless of course, that other mayor gets into the race.
