Rise of the Right Blogosphere?

In an example of the very triumphalism Linda Chavez is warning against, June Kronholz and Amy Schatz write in the Wall Street Journal about how the defeat of the immigration bill may be a sign that the conservative blogosphere has become increasingly influential:

But the immigration bill marked the first time conservative Web logs could claim to have targeted and derailed a major piece of legislation. The triumph underscored their increasing influence and signaled that the balance of online power may be evening out in the political arena.

Kronholz and Schatz suggest that conservative blogs can have the most impact when they work closely with right-wing talk radio.

There's plenty to be said on the subject -- a lot already has been said -- but a couple of quick points. For one thing, if the right's blogs are attaching themselves to the conservative machine, is that a sign of greater "influence" or simply a noticable increase in the noise level? Were the blogs actually driving the debate or simply amplifying it? I'll leave that as an open question for now.

Perhaps more signficantly, I would suggest that there's a difference between a blogosphere that pushes its party toward more popular positions, and one that helps move its party further toward political irrelevance.