* So who were those “knowledgeable people” whom state Rep. Aaron Schock consulted with on his now abandoned proposal to sell (nonexistent) nuclear missiles to Taiwan to pressure China over Iran? Bernie Schoenburg tried to find out…

“I have listened to knowledgeable people on this issue and they have said I am on the right track with a proposal that has a great chance to diffuse the crisis without military conflict but that I was wrong to include the possibility of selling nuclear arms to Taiwan as a bargaining chip with China,” [Schock claimed in his press release backing down from his proposal].

So I called Schock, a state representative and Peoria Republican, to ask who those advisers were.

There are, he said, “a number of people, both locally, as well as friends I have in Washington, D.C., that have chimed in on it.”

I asked if he was talking to any particular professor or military person.

“Well, they’re not wanting to get involved in the campaign,” he said.

OK, so what about his campaign manager, Steven Shearer, who worked for retiring Congressman Jerry Weller?

“Certainly, as the campaign manager, he has input, as well as other people on my campaign staff,” Schock said.

He said the unnamed “knowledgeable people” also had a part in his announcement speech, presumably including the Taiwan nukes idea.

* Billy Dennis read Bernie’s piece and had this to say…

Here in Peoria — the largest city in the 18th District and the city in which Schock lives — the Journal Star’s coverage of the issue is meager. The PJS’s lead reporter in the 18th District race is Karen McDonald. To date, her byline has appeared above one single article dealing with the controversy, the one in which Schock admitted to a mistake. McDonald attended the announcement in which he detailed Schock’s Taiwan proposal, but her article didn’t even mention it. She did no reporting on the uproar that followed Schoenberg’s column about it and has done no follow up reporting on what has been the single biggest story coming out of the 18th District race so far. She attended a candidate’s forum at which Schock and his two primary foes appeared, and her only mention of the controversy is that no one brought it up.

* And that brings me to my latest syndicated newspaper column, which talks about the influence that political blogs are having on the process here in Illinois…

Political blogs have been getting a bad rap in newspapers for years, but they’re rapidly coming of age and making an impact in campaigns throughout Illinois this year.

* The column goes through the now familiar story of how blogs participated in forcing Schock to back off his wacky idea…

While Schock refused to back down, bloggers kept digging. They found Schock had voted against a bill in the state Legislature to put economic pressure on Iran’s energy business - the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear ambitions - through state pension fund divestment, even though Schock voted for a similar divestment bill for Sudan.

Larry Handlin at ArchPundit.com pointed out Schock’s nuke idea would violate international law. A commenter at my blog noted Schock’s proposal was scarily similar to the Soviet Union’s attempt to put nukes in Cuba (which very nearly triggered a nuclear holocaust).

Billy Dennis, who led the charge on Schock at his Peoria Pundit blog, discovered the Chinese government had helped Schock pay for a trip to that country a few years ago.

It wasn’t until Schock abandoned his goofy proposal that the Peoria paper finally acknowledged almost all of the concerns raised by the bloggers.

* The column then moves on to other races….

Blogs are having a different impact in Congressman Dan Lipinski’s district. Lipinski is a conservative Democrat whose father, former Congressman Bill Lipinski, engineered an unconscionable free ride to Washington, D.C., for his kid, who hadn’t lived in Illinois for years.

Lipinski has strong opposition from Mark Pera in the upcoming Democratic primary. Pera’s cause is being championed by liberal Democratic blogs all over the country, so every local story that trashes Lipinski is put in front of hundreds of thousands of eyeballs that otherwise wouldn’t see them.

As a result, Daily Southtown columnist Kristen McQueary now has a whole lot more fans than she did before the campaign season began. That coverage, in turn, has raised big campaign bucks for Pera when highlighted by the national blogs.

* And more…

Bloggers in Illinois and nationally are expressing interest in Daniel Biss’ campaign for the Illinois House. Biss faces an uphill race in a district represented by popular Republican incumbent state Rep. Beth Coulson, but he’s raising a ton of cash because he has paid so much attention to online media.

Quite a few Chicago bloggers have been aggressively advocating for a financial bailout of the Chicago Transit Authority. Much of their reporting and analysis has been far superior to anything produced by the mainstream Chicago media.

Go read the whole thing.

I promised readers of the column a bunch of links to various political blogs mentioned in the story. I’ll post those later this morning, but loyal readers can help out by putting links to their favorite local political blogs in comments.

*** UPDATE *** As promised in my column, here are a few state and local blogs to keep an eye on. My apologies in advance for all those I missed. If yours isn’t here, or your favorite one isn’t listed, do so in comments…

* ArchPundit

* CTA Tattler

* IlliniPundit

* Illinois Review

* Illinoize

* Open Line (Aurora)

* Peoria Pundit

* Lynn Sweet (Sun-Times)

* WurfWhile (DuPage Dems)

* Bridget in the 6th

* Prairie State Blue

* Elginite

* Dog Fight in the 50th (Chicago’s 50th Ward)

* Clout City (Chicago Reader)

* Illinois Transportation Issues

* Spontaneous Solutions (IL Policy Institute)

* Public Affairs (Berkowitz)

* Team America (Lake County, 10th Congressional District)

* Clout Street (Tribune)

* Rep. John Fritchey

* Illinois Reason