Muscling a Web Site Into a Social Movement

When Letiecq isn't campaigning against illegal immigration, he savages local officials, media outlets (The Washington Post is a favorite target) and candidates who disagree with his views, unafraid to strike below the belt. A Democratic candidate for the Virginia General Assembly, Jeff Dion, withdrew his candidacy in May after Letiecq attacked Dion's "homosexual lifestyle" and revealed that Dion had a personal ad on a gay dating Web site.

"I'm anti-sin," said Letiecq, who considers homosexuality "a bad choice" and said that "people who make bad choices shouldn't be our representatives."

But Democrats, illegal immigrants and homosexuals aren't Letiecq's only targets. He has also waged a withering offensive against Faisal Gill, a Republican naval officer and former Homeland Security official of Pakistani descent who is the first Muslim nominee to the Virginia General Assembly.

"He's like a schoolyard bully," said Gill, a partner in the law firm representing a former Republican House of Delegates candidate, Steve H. Chapman, who is suing Letiecq for defamation. "He clearly plays to the prejudices people have."

Letiecq has repeatedly derided Gill as a "terrorist" because Gill once worked for a U.S. Muslim group whose former leader was convicted of having illegal ties to the Libyan government. Gill was cleared of any wrongdoing by Homeland Security investigators. He calls Letiecq's Web site "yellow journalism."

"Yellow journalism?" Letiecq repeated, grinning, when asked to respond to the characterization. "That's true. I don't try to make myself out to be a newspaper."

Instead, Letiecq said, he is like a 19th-century pamphleteer, advancing his views and urging others to action. "I don't like clean, sanitized don't-upset-anybody kinds of discussions," he said. "We shouldn't pull our punches."

Tribbett said this locally oriented approach represents "the future of blogging." Because local officials lack an outlet for their views, Tribbett explained, they are intimidated by a blogger with a large and loyal following able to flood their offices with calls or "put boots on the ground."

"It's amusing to see local officials pushed around by a blogger," Tribbett said.