One of the highlights of attending the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota was a conservative bloggers luncheon hosted by Captain Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com.

Indeed, the Kurdish food at Rodwan Nakshabandi restaurant, Babani's, was authentic and incredible. No blogger left hungry. And the conversation with A-list bloggers and modern blogger relations experts was even better. But what I want to talk about are the nuts-n-bolts which brought this event together and why I think it was a great example of effective blogger outreach.

First and foremost, credit where credit is due. The event was engineered by current New Media Strategies employee and The Next Right co-founder, Jon Henke. Henke organized the event with the sponsorship of a client, Verizon Communications. The event was hosted by Minneapolis-native, Captain Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com.

@JonHenke is a known and very well-regarded quantity in this space. He earned his blogger stripes years ago at QandO, and was thrust in to the professional blogger outreach scene when he was tapped by former Senator George Allen's campaign (post-macaca gaffe). Henke then went on to work in Sen. Mitch McConnell's communications staff before he left public service for the private sector. Wisely, Henke has remained a relevant force in the scene partnering with a few of the GOP's best to launch a conservative activists focused group blog, The Next Right.

Professionally, Jon and I sometimes find ourselves working on opposite sides on issues, particularly with regard to Open Internet/Net Neutrality. Personally, Jon is a colleague and friend that I respect deeply. I consider him one of the best in the industry with an honest heart of gold and I'm really pleased when I find him in my corner on other professional/political issues like Slatecard, the need for smarter conservative online infrastructure, and the rise of the New Guards.

Without a doubt, Jon could have easily pulled off a successful bloggers luncheon that everyone in the room would have attended. Given the backing of Verizon, he could have held the luncheon at the swankiest joint in town.

But, he didn't.

Jon made the smart move of reaching out to one of the blogosphere's finest, HotAir's Ed Morrissey, who no doubt welcomed the opportunity to help pull together the event in his neck of the woods and expose us to some truly unique food. Indeed, in an email inviting bloggers to the luncheon, Morrissey's tone was perfect:

Welcome to the Twin Cities, fellow convention bloggers! I'm Ed Morrissey from Hot Air, and like you, I'm excited to have the opportunity to cover the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. As one of the credentialed bloggers to the 2004 Republican Convention in New York City, I can tell you that meeting and working with fellow bloggers from around the country was the best part of the experience.

In order to facilitate that same kind of atmosphere, I'd like to invite you to a private blogger's luncheon, sponsored by Verizon Communications, at Babani's in St. Paul, right around the corner from the Xcel Center, on Wednesday at noon CDT. Babani's is a Kurdish restaurant owned by Rodwan Nakshabandi, who has a tremendous life story.

By reaching out to Morrissey, Henke was able to accomplish two goals with one stone. First, Jon extended an opportunity to the influential Morrissey to let him pull the event together how he thought it should be done. It was easily one of the best events I attended. And secondly, Henke was able to softly associate his client with Morrissey and the attending bloggers. This subtle approach to client/blogger relations was the right tone and has now opened the opportunity to keep that conversation going over the next days and weeks. Heck, I work against Verizon on some issues and here I am writing about the event. That's gotta be saying something.

Smart move Jon. To you sir, two scoops of porridge.

Jon Henke's blog post, "New Guards," is one of the most important pieces I've read regarding the next stage of the Revolution of which we fight. You need to read Henke's post before digging in to this series.

Henke accurately notes how the Left effectively uses its online infrastructure to provide three things to progressive candidates: Messaging, Money, Mobilization.

Henke concludes that the Rightosphere can catch up, but it's going to take, among other things, a changing of the "guards." He writes:

The Right can accomplish the same thing, but it cannot start on third base. The Right has to develop the gravitational pull before it tries to pull the political system into its orbit. That may be complicated, but I don't believe it is actually difficult to do. However, it is not something that can be done simply by funding more of the same Old Guards. If the Right is to do something about the current long train of abuses and bad government, it must, to borrow from the Declaration of Independence, "provide new Guards".

After reading Henke's post, I was immediately reminded of the first blog post I wrote announcing the launch of this group blog where I said:

One thing which has become increasingly clear to me and many others is that the Republican Party - the establishment - has failed to effectively engage and embrace Web 2.0 strategies. While the Internet has grown rapidly, the Party apparatus and its top officials are operating in a disconnected, Web 0.5 world. The result is that our message is failing to penetrate the modern world where millions of independent voters and modern Republicans spend a majority of their time.

It was true a year ago when I said it and to some degree is still true today. Some colleagues in the politics + technology liken pointing to the deficiencies in the Right's online effort as unhelpful. Constantly harping on the issue would indeed be hurtful to the overall effort, but sometimes it simply makes sense to take a step back, analyze the effort, note areas of success and those needing improvement, and move on. That is what this series seeks to accomplish.

WHY MOVEON MATTERS

There are many elements on the Left which comprise what is referred to as the "Netroots" that are making an impact that I won't be discussing in this piece. Some of these include Talking Points Memo (especially TPMuckraker), Huffington Post (Off The Bus), ActBlue, Media Matters, Kos-FiredogLake-MyDD-OpenLeft, Brave New Films, etc.

However, the focus of this article is to discuss MoveOn in the sense that it is making the largest impact on the space and is trying to be replicated on our side of the aisle.

* MoveOn [501(c)4 & PAC] *

To be sure, MoveOn is the most convincing force which is making a difference on the Left. It contributes more than any other political operation to Henke's three M's: messaging, money and mobilization.

Ironically, MoveOn is not a competitor to activism organizations on the Right. It's members would never cross-over to support an organization on the Right. Indeed, it's market is vertical with a defined niche and audience. Indicative of this is the fact that for as long as I can remember they have been saying they have more than 3.2 million members - the organization's growth is static - at least for now.

In my opinion, MoveOn's success is due to several factors.

1. First, MoveOn is a brand encompassing a "family of organizations" that includes both a political arm (MoveOn.org Political Action) and a non-profit arm (MoveOn.org Civic Action / 501(c)4). This yields it the legal leverage it needs to do whatever it wants (take massive donations through its 501(c)4 for use on "education and advocacy" and pay costly operational expenses, and use its PAC to play in political races, make contributions to candidates it supports, and raise money from its membership for those candidates.

2. Its large membership is extremely wired, active, can afford to drink fancy coffee drinks, and loves being a part of MoveOn because they constantly put points on the board.

3. MoveOn has always been an organic effort which focuses on member initiatives. They branded MoveOn from the beginning as an inclusive, member-driven community of grassroots activists coordinated by a nimble team instead of being a staff-heavy, top-down operation. That's important.

For example, pay close attention to the messaging in the smart deployment of a DonationTube highlighting their accomplishments in 2007:

The take-away from this video is that you, the member, are "MoveOn." It is the passengers riding the bus, and not the bus driver, who are responsible for helping change the political landscape and forwarding their liberal agenda. Organizations on the Right would be wise to honestly shift more control over their efforts to its community. Doing so would leverage a stronger, more cohesive team approach.

4. Their emails and online campaigns are thoughtful, interesting, and effective even to the outside observer like TechRepublican. Yeah, this point seems obvious, but it's not obvious to everyone given the fact that I'm constantly barraged by email newsletters on a Friday at 7 PM that I never read.

So where is the Right's MoveOn? Are the "New Guards" already on the scene? Which organization will get the formula right for the Right? The answer is not an easy one but we can take a close look at some of the competing forces trying to be the one.

To do so, I'm going to take a broad look at many of the entities on the Right -- some old, some new -- which are all working independently on the Right to help further, generally, Right-leaning efforts.

Parts II and III will be available soon.

Why do you think MoveOn is successful?

* Read part II of the New Guards series, "The Players."
* Read part III of the New Guards series, "An Empowered Rightosphere

Jonathan Martin of the Politico is reporting that TechRepublican contributor and modern media guru, Patrick Ruffini, has left the Giuliani campaign to start up his own consultancy. Best of luck Patrick.

In other news in the growing field of online political operatives, Jon Henke, New Media Advisor for the Senate Republican Communications Office, has also jumped ship for a gig which he won't tell me -- even after three emails.

Via email:

This past six months has been a hell of a ride, but I’ve been offered an intriguing opportunity elsewhere – about which, more in due time -- so tomorrow will be my last day in the Senate. I owe you all a great debt of gratitude for your help, your kind words and your patience. I hope this office has been of some help to you; I believe it will continue to do so. This role will be filled by somebody else before long, and I intend to help them – and you – in any way I can.