Some of the biggest names in today's conservative movement -- from TV pundit Michelle Malkin to Washington policy wonk Grover Norquist -- took the stage yesterday to exult in media coverage received by protesters of health-care reform at recent town hall meetings.

"You have seized control of the domestic policy debate in this country," Ms. Malkin told the group at the two-day RightOnline conference of conservative bloggers. RightOnline, which wrapped up yesterday at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel, was sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a Washington-D.C.-based conservative foundation.

Ms. Malkin's audience included a number of self-described "tea party" activists, whom Democrats have described as "astroturfers" -- false plants in town hall audiences by special interests opposed to health-care reform.

"They wanted you gone, silenced and out of sight, marginalized and demoralized, but you prevailed," Ms. Malkin said.

"Don't worry about how many people are attending the nutroots conference," she added -- in a reference to Netroots Nation, the gathering of liberal bloggers at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, whose 1,800 registrants outnumber the 600 attending Right Online.

"What is the White House worrying about, the nutroots or you?" Ms. Malkin said. "You are holding Democrats responsible for disguising a massive energy tax as climate change legislation. Democratic lawmakers are hiding from their constituents ... phoning it in in telephone conference calls instead of face to face."

"Cowards!" shouted someone from the audience.

Right Online's organizers have acknowledged that Democrats used the Internet far more effectively in recent elections, although one of the bloggers at the conference, 25-year old Austin James, said he hopes that will change.

The Virginia resident is director of new media for the American Majority, a conservative group, and is helping to train digital activists -- "as long as they stand for principles of limited government and individual freedom," he said.

"Liberals have a more collectivist, social community belief system and it's more enticing to be in social networks. That's why they've been the early adapters here. Conservatives tend to be oriented towards individual liberty, so adopting a national, worldwide platform is less appealing, perhaps.

Indeed, despite exhortations by speakers at yesterday's session to get on Facebook and Twitter, Kenneth Bullock, of Washington, D.C., shook his head. While he thinks Republican conservatives are doing a good job on the Internet -- with sites like Redstate.com and the National Review Online -- he said social media doesn't appeal to him.

"The World Wide Web is good enough for me."

If anything, yesterday's keynote session was as much about rallying the faithful about next year's political prospects as converting them into bloggers.

"The mood here is much brighter and more optimistic" than over at Netroots, John Fund, editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, told the audience, joking nonetheless that during his visit with the liberal group Friday, "they were very nice to me."

Noting that the previous two Democratic presidents suffered heavy losses in midterm congressional elections -- Jimmy Carter in 1978 and Bill Clinton in 1994, Mr. Fund told the crowd, "It's time to go three for three." Direct mail helped to mobilize the right in 1977 and the Harry and Louise commercial helped to sink Hillary Clinton's health care plan in 1993, he said.

Today, Mr. Fund said, "Twhe responsibility is falling on you, the American people, with the new technology, blogging and the Internet.

"In 1977 you stopped government in its tracks, and in 1993 you proved you could do it. If you do again what you did in 1977 and 1993, you will one day be able to turn to your children and grandchildren, you will be able to say we were a new great generation, we stopped big government in its tracks," he said to a standing ovation.

A call for lowering tensions came from Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, a polarizing figure in last year's presidential election, who noted that "usually my speeches are about yelling at people." Instead, he said it was important to preserve the American tradition of civil debate.

"Right now we find ourselves in the midst of a battle. The mainstream media wants to propagate 'us versus them.' That message doesn't work at all.

"My neighborhood is full of strong union people, so when you're out there blogging, it's easy to take a shot at that left, but these are your neighbors, friends," he said. "Make it an American movement."

But Ms. Malkin wasn't having any. She even took a swipe at fellow Republicans, mocking those who, after last year's defeat in the presidential election, called for a "rebranding" of the GOP to include more moderates.

Recent health-care reform protests -- and their coverage on cable television and on YouTube -- show that strategy is wrong, she said.

"You have shown the spine and resilience that has been lacking among so many of our Republican leaders in Washington," she said.

"I have watched the civility police in the newsrooms I've worked for on both sides of the aisle counsel me to tone it down, to conduct ourselves in dulcet tones. We cannot afford moderation at a time like this. This is not the time to bend our spines or bow our heads."

That philosophy seemed to be holding sway in at least one of the panel discussions during the third day of the four-day Netroots conference. There, former Allegheny County Coroner Cyril H. Wecht and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman heatedly discussed their recent legal troubles with federal prosecutors in a session titled: "Reporting DoJ Misconduct Scandals: Why Netroots Remains Last Hope for Justice."

Mr. Siegelman who served as governor from 1999 to 2003, was convicted in 2006 on corruption charges. Now free on bond and appealing his conviction, Mr. Siegelman questioned whether it was a crime for HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy to donate money to Mr. Siegelman's campaign for a state lottery before he was reappointed to a state hospital regulatory panel.

He told about 70 attendees at the session that his prosecution was politically motivated and engineered by Karl Rove, an adviser to former President George W. Bush, and officials of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In his typical outspoken style, Dr. Wecht described spending "a small fortune" on his defense after being charged in 2006 by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan on 84 counts alleging he had misused his office to benefit privately.

That led to a trial ending in a hung jury in April 2008 and Ms. Buchanan announced she would retry Dr. Wecht. But after a judge threw out evidence in May, Dr. Wecht said Ms. Buchanan, "with great reluctance and obviously much perturbation" dropped all the charges on June 2, while adding she believed Dr. Wecht had committed a crime and said if she could, she'd charge him again.

That prompted Dr. Wecht to lodge a protest June 18 with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which began an inquiry.

No word has come from the department about his complaint, he said -- even as Ms. Buchanan, who was appointed by Mr. Bush, remains in office.

"The issue transcends Cyril Wecht," he said. "It's an issue of whether a U.S. attorney, following the declaration of someone's innocence, can make a statement that a crime was committed by that person and she would do it all again."

Both Dr. Wecht and Mr. Siegelman expressed frustration with the Obama administration, which has replaced only a handful of the 93 U.S. attorneys appointed by Mr. Bush.

"It's absolutely unbelievable that they remain in place," said Mr. Wecht, who said the Obama administration should "replace these people."