Surf over to Talking Points, Daily KOS, Eschaton or one of the other big Democratic blogs, and you might spot ads inviting you to send money to John Barrow or Doug Haines, rivals in the 12th District primary race to see who gets a shot at Republican Rep. Max Burns.

Haines and Barrow are the first Georgia politicians we know of to advertise on blogs, a trend that got hot after Kentucky Democrat Ben Chandler sank $2,000 into blogs and raised $80,000 in two weeks. Last month, Chandler won his special-election race for Congress.

Barrow said his campaign has made money from the ads, which have been up about a month, but nothing like the amounts raised by Chandler, who was running in a race that had been targeted by both national parties.

Martin Matheny, Haines' communications director, said that their campaign has invested less than $1,000 in blogs and gotten "a significant return" for its effort.

But it's important, Matheny said, to treat those who respond as more than just a check.

"We've gone the extra step," he said, "and actually invited people to join a discussion with us on our campaign blog."

Verily, except a candidate fall by the wayside, a movement cannot be born

In their own way, the Democrats who found an Internet connection and flocked to Howard Dean last year invited a lot of comparisons with the religious conservatives who made an equally rambunctuous entry into political activism in the 1988 presidential campaign of Pat Robertson.

The Christian Coalition arose from Robertson's failed campaign, and many Republicans who count themselves in their party's mainstream today got their start in that movement.

Dean's campaign is about to kick off its national organizational sequel, and Georgians for Democracy will have its launch Saturday afternoon at Ashton's in Decatur.

Thomas Bell, one of several former Dean volunteers involved in the project, said the group hopes to draw former supporters of John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and other Democrats and anticipates getting involved in voter turnout efforts, issue advocacy and voter education.

There's also talk about a political action committee.

"This is a group that is still forming, so we're still sort of figuring out our specific purpose," Bell said.

Most former Dean supporters, he said, "remain very stoked" about working for the Democratic Party this year.