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Lott tripped
  This CNN piece caught our eye at Scripting News.
  http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/16/timep.lott.tm/
  A quote: "If Lott didn't see the storm coming, it was in part because it was so slow in building. The papers did not make note of his comments until days after he had made them. But the stillness was broken by the hum of Internet 'bloggers' who were posting their outrage and compiling rap sheets of Lott's earlier comments. It took a few more days before Democrats denounced Lott and demanded a censure."
Top down
  I thought weblogs would rewrite the rules of US politics, but I thought it would happen slowly, and come from the ground up: that one candidate, perhaps for local office, would use a weblog well, and others would follow, and in a few years a weblog would be an assumed part of a political presence, much as telephones and airplanes are today.
  This is a surprise. That weblogs would play a role in the toppling of a major US political leader, is growth from the top down, and it's happening very quickly. The medium is perfectly suited for this. All of a sudden punditry is open to everyone.
  I think somewhere, where ever he is, Thomas Jefferson is smiling. ";->"
  Dave Winer