What's This Button Do?

I wrote this morning about the baby steps the Republicans are taking with regards to web media.

Slate has noticed it, too. Tonight's article makes the Republicans sound like goofs in the tech department, which is fine because it's true.

It's an interesting article. People forget that losing an election and becoming a minority opposition group can do wonders for reinvigorating a base.

"To our friends on the 'Net, what's up!" Michael Steele is waving at a tiny video camera at the National Republican Club on Capitol Hill. It's the Republican Party's first-ever Tech Summit—a gathering of party leaders, wonks, and tech gurus—and the idea of a simulcast must feel rather exciting.

When the mugging is over, the RNC chairman outlines the Steele Doctrine: "If we haven't done it, let's do it. If we haven't thought of it, think about it. … Don't just think outside the box—I hate that phrase anyway—take it someplace the box hasn't even reached yet."

All of which might sound like hollow rhetoric, if it weren't for the box-busting nature of the event itself: The summit might be the most un-Republican thing the Republican Party has ever done. More...