On Call And Calling In

For all of those on the edge of their seats waiting for Rudy Guiliani to officially announce his run in 2008, visit the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza's new blog. "The Fix" provides daily posts for political junkies from Cillizza, a veteran political reporter and Roll Call alum, as well as dispatches from the Post's political reporters.

Paging John Mercurio! Since Chris Cillizza is just one man and since political news still happens after The Hotline is published (and because our own Vaughn Ververs insisted that we shamelessly plug his former employer's newest product) Hotline On Call, The Hotline's new blog (they are all the rage these days) is worth checking out.

You may recall that there was citizen journalism before the blogosphere – the viewer call-in program. After 500,000 viewer phone calls and some 46,000 call-in segments, C-SPAN is celebrating its 25th year of viewer call-in programming. This weekend, the network will feature a 25-hour call-in marathon starting at 8 p.m. Friday. On Saturday night, Erika Barger, a high-school senior from Ormand Beach, Fla., will be hanging out with Brian Lamb, Bill Kristol and Frank Rich to talk about the war in Iraq. Barger was the grand prize winner of an essay contest that asked viewers to describe why they watch or participate in call-in programs on C-SPAN. She's a brave girl – some of those "Washington Journal" callers can be pretty feisty.