Michelle Malkin is following the story of how Democratic Senator Dick Durbin allegedly violated Senate ethics Rules by using Senate resources to create a plea to YearlyKos activists:

Earlier today, bloggers Reverse Spin and Backyard Conservative called attention to Democrat Dick Durbin’s video to the nutroots YearlyKos convention, which used an official Senate seal. The Senate Ethics Manual explicitly forbids the use of the Senate seal for campaign use. The video had been posted on the DailyKos website since Saturday. (Keep reading Michelle's post.)

And last month, TechRepublican pointed out similar violations of the rules by Harry Reid.

Are these Senate Ethics Rules just for show? Who is enforcing them? Does it matter to those that they represent?

Personally, I don't think a U.S. Senator or a Member of the House -- Republican or Democrat -- should have their web-use governed by a silly, prehistoric ethics manual. We live in the modern world and it's time our public officials start communicating like it.

Videos, blogs, social networking, etc. These are all likely vehicles for "Rule" breaking. But they're also modes of effectively communicating in the modern world.

In June I wrote an op-ed with Paul Blumenthal on Members of Congress being restricted by House Franking Rules.

Now it looks like we need to write one for the U.S. Senate. If not, we'll just be writing another post about how Senator X violated the Rules, again, by trying to communicate a message more effectively.