First it was the Senate - now, Eric Cantor, and the House Minority Whip's online team spearheaded by Matt Lira are taking the GOP message on health care reform to YouTube.

Today's video news release features congressional doctors who oppose the President's health care reform bill that is making its way through Congress right now.

Here is the office's official statement on the goal of this video release.

Today, the Office of the Republican Whip launched a video news release featuring Republican Doctors in the U.S. House; these doctors have spent decades providing medical care to patients and share real concerns about legislation designed to increase government's role in health care.  Instead, they support common-sense reform that lowers costs, improves access to needed care, and strengthens the doctor/patient relationship.

I appreciate this video, because it is well produced and conveys a strong message.  While it may be a bit long, the congressmen are speaking directly into the camera and don't seem overly scripted.

You can watch the video and read the official blog post here.

There is a lot of excitement to be had about new efforts being put forth; both by the RNC and by congressional leadership and conservative leaders to master Internet strategy and engage an online community.

Matt Lira, of Eric Cantor’s National Council of a New America, joined the GOP Tech Summit Grassroots Working Group on a conference call Friday afternoon. 

Here’s an insider’s look into the discussion that took place:

David All introduced Matt, who was on the call to discuss a new initiative put forth by the House Republicans so as to have a conversation with GOP Roots leaders.

Matt Lira talked about the purpose of the National Council and what he hopes it will accomplish:

The National Council is not about politics or about raising money -- We want to have a real conversation about ideas – about how we can leverage technology to enhance the conversation.

The site up now is introductory, but one of its big objectives is to leverage online activism, offline, and vice-versa.

We want to magnify the process and involve as many people as possible at every event to have online conversations that plug in to offline activity.

At the first National Council event we had people of all political stripes, even curious Democrats, and the most reliable conservatives, some pretty famous conservative figures were there and were satisfied with what they were hearing.

There is a hunger for this dialogue because it’s something that needs to happen, that’s where I get into the technology.  There is a huge opportunity to use the technology that’s out there to advance the dialogue online.

What’s next?

When you look at a political movement, the movement that is winning is the movement that is selling.  Reagan was constantly selling conservative values to mainstream America and we have to be always asking ourselves how we can apply those values to suburban families with a cheerful optimism.

The best way to do this is to leverage the incredible talent in the House GOP; Cantor, McCarthy, and McMorris-Rodgers, among many other emerging leaders who know how to communicate.

The National Council wants YOUR feedback:

This initiative started fast, so we’re still open to ideas and
technologies.  I’m very interested to hear your suggestions, comments
and concerns?

What can we do to improve the dialogue? What kind of online events would you want to see?

Livestreaming video of an event online is fine and dandy – but what other technologies can we bring into the fold to make the online user’s experience more authentic and dynamic? Perhaps we can allow users to utilize Twitter to submit live questions, among other things. I’m interested to hear your feedback.

Feel free to leave your comments in the comments section and I will make sure that Matt reads them.

Today, President-Elect Barack Obama met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about a proposed stimulus bill to help "stabilize" America's sagging economy.

While the details of the plan are still being sketched out, Republican leaders from the House and Senate were a part of that face-to-face session and appear to have made some progress toward pushing Obama's team toward transparency with the TBD stimulus plan.

In particular, as reported by The New York Times and padded with details from a Congressional source from that meeting, House Republican Eric Cantor, (who will be sworn in tomorrow to the #2 leadership post of House Republican Whip), asserted that all spending should be posted online, in real-time, in a user-friendly format with the ability to sort by congressional districts.

As reported by the NYT:

Mr. Obama listened as Republicans raised concerns about waste and transparency in the economic stimulus plan. He agreed with a suggestion raised by Representative Eric Cantor, Republican of Virginia, about putting the entire contents of the legislation online in a user-friendly way to see how the money is being spent.

Obama's agreement to the idea of posting spending online is no surprise given his track-record of the use of technology to help curb wasteful spending. He was the cosponsor of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 with conservative U.S. Senator Tom Coburn which led to the creation of USAspending.gov to do just that.

The details of the stimulus plan are still being fleshed out but I feel a bit better about it knowing that leaders like Eric Cantor are putting forth good ideas that are being agreed to - at least in concept - by Obama. We should keep a close eye to ensure that Obama and his liberal allies in the House and Senate keep these commonsense principles in place as they finalize the legislation.

UPDATE Jan. 6, 10:52 AM: Regarding the stimulus plan, The Heritage Foundation has launched a rapid response section on its website to track the bill and offer conservative alternatives.

Matt Lira, Eric Cantor’s new media guru, is travelling Virginia, training party leadership online. His goal: To help congressional staff & party leadership close the internet gap between conservatives & liberals in the state. I ventured to a training he hosted in Richmond last evening and am encouraged that our side is starting to speak to leaders in a very practical way about how to communicate in the modern world.

Here were just a few snippets:

- When writing a blog post ask: What do I read online?

- For only $99 a campaign can purchase an RCA Small Wonder handheld camera and create high quality video for YouTube that doesn’t strain a budget.

- One of the fastest growing demographics among SocNet users are now young people & moms. Coincidentally, both groups are among the hardest to reach on the campaign trail.

- Tele-Townhall meeting are a fun, innovative way to connect constituents with the legislative process. Using a web-based control screen, congressional staff can engage 1,000’s of constituents in a two-way conversation and get invaluable feedback on a tough vote or hot-button issue of the day.

These are just a few things that sparked my interest. Matt Lira has a great way of talking about the intersection of politics and the internet in a way that doesn’t make these newcomers’ heads spin. He offered step-by-step practical advice. As a movement, I think we need to be doing more training sessions like this. We need to break out of Washington and practice what we preach. Train the folks on the ground who are out there fighting every day. Kudos to Matt Lira and to everyone else who’s advancing this cause. I look forward to keeping this up in the future.

U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) continues to break new ground in the world of tech + politics.

His latest offering is termed a "Web Presentation" on a bill Cantor authored, the Middle Class Jobs Protection Act. The presentation is essentially a documentary on the bill -- a more modern press release if you will.

Check it out here.

Another dollop of porridge to Congressman Cantor and his eGuru Matt Lira.

A few highlights:
* The video is really, really good. Some might even call it "artsy." A particularly good use of lighting on the interviewed subjects.
* I actually read the bullet points on what the bill would do. It's refreshing to see just the right amount of text. When it comes to policy, less is more (sometimes).
* The diamond of the operation which shows a smart use of the product is the email capture where you can sign-up "To Support This Legislation as a Citizen Co-Sponsor." This should add more contacts to Cantor's growing email list of citizens actually interested in what he has to say.

FINAL THOUGHT: Matt and I go back and forth about his use of a custom flash player (rather than using YouTube), but I think it works well in this instance. He needs the entire real estate to effectively distribute the message and I think this product does just that. Keep up the good work.

Especially if you're a Republican.

Don't believe me? Check out the good work of the Democratic Congress from Eric Cantor's perspective:

Eric Cantor's modern media guru Matt Lira is destined to have a stocking full of porridge under the TechRepublican Christmas tree if he keeps this up.

My only suggestion for Cantor is why end the video without a call to action? Why not send folks back to your website where they can send a delightful holiday message to Nancy Pelosi? We know you have the skills and the creativity.

And let's be honest, that's one holiday message we'd all love to send (and might get you some pub).

The NRCC’s latest Rediscover video focuses on the importance of protecting conservative free speech and features Rep. Mike Pence.

It’s well worth the watch.

Additionally, the video encourages activists to sign the petition launched by Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA), at www.StandWithRush.com and stand with Rush Limbaugh who is the latest target of Democrats’ attempts to distract from their growing list of failures.

The petition, previously posted on here, already has over 13,000 signatures.

Let’s make sure it continues to grow.

www.standwithrush.com

Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia just launched an online petition urging conservatives to "Stand With Rush (Limbaugh)" against liberal attacks.

The text of the petition reads:

One failure after another, Washington Democrats have built a record of legislative failure; one disappointment after another, Washington Democrats have failed to deliver results to the people who got them there.

This must be why, just nine months into their tenure, the Democrat-led Congress hit an 11% approval rating – that is the lowest in recorded history. Facing their record of failure, Washington Democrats decided to try and distract – and so they took a man’s words out of context, then they went on the attack.

It is at moments like these when we need to band together as conservatives and fight back. That is exactly what the Red State community and so many other conservatives around the country have been doing.

This issue is bigger than you or me, it is bigger than Rush Limbaugh. With the recent liberal effort to resurrect the "fairness doctrine," we have to recognize that free speech -- conservative free speech is under direct attack. These are issues that speak directly to the core of the modern conservative movement – are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed around by liberal extremists, or are we going to fight back?

I want to send Washington Democrats a message that their attempts to distract aren’t working – I stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks.

Rep. Eric Cantor
EricCantor.com

If Cantor's thinking about running for that VA-SEN seat, he's going to have a nice head start on building an email list of supporters.

I'm literally beside myself.

Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor, a member of the House Leadership and a rock solid conservative, has just broken exciting new ground with this "choose your own adventure" video.

In an email shipped out from the Cantor communications office, they said the following:

To coincide with today's Ways and Means hearing on carried interest, we launched a new web feature at cantor.house.gov to help bring attention to the debate.

It's an interactive film, which allows you to join in on an adventure to discover who is responsible for threatening our economy and hopefully learn more about the important debate over carried interest that is happening to day on the Hill.

http://cantor.house.gov/adventure/

To our knowledge, this is the first time anything like this has been done in politics; so, we're excited to hear your feedback on the project.

Brad Dayspring, Republican Study Committee communications director, followed up with a solid blog post explaining the issue and noting Cantor's smart use of online, interactive video.

As one of the co-authors of the Open House Project, a citizen-drafted report on how Congress can make a smarter, better use of technology to better communicate with their constituents, I'm pleased to see Congressman Cantor (and his team) taking risks and being creative.

And the best part is that this video is just the beginning. We look forward to seeing more.

READ MORE ABOUT ERIC CANTOR'S ONLINE ACTIVITIES:

* Eric Cantor gets it
* The "Solutions Factory" opens
* Cantor's cruising the technology wave to positive press

We need more Members of Congress like Eric Cantor and more talented, tech-savvy staffers like his spokesblogger, Matt Lira.

I was checking out my incoming tweets and I got the following ping from @EricCantor: "Peter Hardin at the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an interesting article on our online efforts."

I read the article Cantor was sending around to his tweets. It's a great story about Cantor's use of the Internet and gives proper credit to the staffer behind the effort, Matt Lira. Nice work Team Cantor.

This is how Members of Congress can and should be effectively communicating... even in the minority.

Hey Congressman --- PLEASE tell the rest of your caucus.