While most of the conservative blogosphere's energy has been directed into attacks against Barack Obama, there's been a recent surge this week of focus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi is participating in an online chat with The Washington Post today to promote her new book. Conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin have been mocking the book's poor first week of sales (2,737 copies so far). Malkin suggests readers ask Pelosi a version of the question: "Why won't you allow up-or-down votes on GOP energy proposals?"

Malkin also posted the following altered parody cover of Pelosi's new book, "Know Your Power":



Online conservative innovator Robert Bluey also sent a Tweet to his 589 followers encouraging them to participate in the Post chat.

And then there's this mysterious "Speaker Pelosi" Twitter account. It contained an unflattering picture of Pelosi and was sending out updates about the House Republicans' energy protest, all under the guise of coming from the Mrs. Pelosi herself. The account has since been reset. A more-authentic Pelosi Twitter account can be found here.

So, are these various efforts time wasters, or can they have an impact on Nancy Pelosi's standing in the public eye? Much like John McCain's recent You Tube effort, they are an attempt to show Republicans having fun at the expense of their Democratic counterparts. It's as much about boosting the rock-bottom morale of party faithful as it is about "hurting" Pelosi and the Democrats.

Check out CQ’s wonderful new House Appropriations earmark finder:

“CQ examined 5,670 earmarks, totaling $4.2 billion, attributed to a single sponsor in the eight House-passed fiscal 2008 spending bills that contained earmark lists under new disclosure rules. The data were culled from spreadsheets created by the advocacy group Taxpayers for Common Sense, which aggregated sponsor names, project descriptions and dollar figures from committee reports for each of the spending bills.”

As a former congressional reporter with a particular interest in earmarks, I can attest to the exceptional value of this project, which was put developed by top CQ Politics staffers like Jonathan Allen, so you know it’s good.

You can find the individual earmark requests for members like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or “bridge to nowhere” requestor Don Young

The only thing missing from the project, unfortunately, is the full-cooperation of the House:

“Excluded from this analysis were roughly 1,000 projects, totaling $1.5 billion, that were attributed to multiple sponsors.The House Appropriations Committee did not disclose what share of each multiple-member earmark should be credited to each lawmaker who wrote a letter on its behalf.”

Nonetheless, if you’re a reporter, professional government watcher, or just interested in where your tax dollars are being re-directed, it’s very much worth checking out.