Watch blog, anyone? Here they come.

This will be two days in a row that I'm touting work by Ken Quinnell, but here goes. During the YearlyKos convention of bloggers in Chicago, one new wrinkle that came up was called a watch blog. It's a blog that focuses on a politician's actions and analyzes them. More likely, it focuses on an office-holder and points up his/her foibles.

Suddenly, we've got a bunch of watch blogs in South Florida -- all over the state, in fact, aimed at Republicans in Congress and state government.

Look at eyeonileana.blogspot.com. Target is U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, District 18.

Or thelincolnobserver.blogspot.com. Target is U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, District 21.

Or his brother Mario Diaz-Balart, at saynotomario.blogspot.com. Mario Diaz-Balart is U.S. Rep. for District 25.

The three are the Republicans who, thanks to having redistricted so many Democratic-leaning voters into the two other congressional districts in Miami-Dade County, are re-elected with comfortable majorities. The two Democrats representing the county in the U.S. House, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kendrick Meek, are re-elected unopposed -- in effect wasting many thousands of Democratic voters who could topple one or more of the three Republicans.

These three watch blogs are signs that the Republicans won't have it so easy in 2008. The docile mainstream Miami media (dmMm), which doesn't bother to cover Congressional races and then wonders why Congress is so little respected, will have grassroots contention. The people want respectable representation, along with the good government that might ensue.

Thank you, Ken Quinnell, for creating the three watch blogs and all the others that offer chances to post news and analyses that the members of Congress would rather not hear. He also created watch blogs for the Republicans in the state Cabinet, and Sen. Mel Martinez, as well as the other Republicans in Florida's U.S. House delegation.

Now it's up to local activists to announce themselves to Quinnell, declare their Democratic credentials, and start posting news and analysis as it becomes available. Check those blogs: they have clear directions on how to get started.

Is it difficult to be a blogger? Not especially, though it's new and there are some technical tricks to master. Anyone who can do email and word-processing can handle blogging.

For an example of how the watch blog can step beyond the starting gate, click on the link for the one that watches U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, of Florida's 9th U.S. House district. This watch blog has been in existence for quite a while.

Here's a link to a fine analysis on one of Quinnell's new watch blogs -- one on U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, former speaker of the Florida House. It's called the Feeney Alert, and the first post goes into the confusion Feeney tries to spread over his vote to kill the SCHIP program for children's health. The first post was written by Eddie Schwieterman.

UPDATE: Clint Curtis is running against Feeney in '08, and his manifesto is posted on DailyKos as of today, Aug. 17. The link is here.

There's a post on DailyKos that was full of tips for amateur blogging. In other words, to be a blogger you don't have to be a pro -- as this blog shows every day that I post.

Does anyone out there want to run a blog watching our South Florida members of congress? I'd be glad to work with someone toward that goal. Just send an email to this blog -- address along the right column. And if there's already something in the works, please let us know here.

It helps if there's a vigorous political blog run by local established journalists, like the Melbourne-based Florida Today's Brevard Watch that provided basic material on Tom Feeney's pronouncement. Do we have that in the Miami Herald's Naked Politics blog? Remains to be seen.