If you like what we've been blogging about on Daily Kos and MyDD over the past 4 years, I know you'll enjoy reading Crashing the Gate. When we formulated the proposal for this book at the beginning of this year, we wrote a sort of historical chapter from this decade and the rise of the outsiders or reformers within the Democratic Party. That wound up being Chapter 5, Civil War, the story of CFR, Dean, and the rise of the netroots, placed within the context of the Democratic Party. Every other chapter takes it's footing from the blog world as well, but that was probably the easiest chapter to write, because most of it was from our experience, and didn't require a lot of interviews. We let the DNC winter meeting and the California Democratic convention of 2003 take the center stage for the presentation of Dean. I think those two speeches (and Dean never gave that speech again) epitomized the call to action that Dean for America represented to millions. And for us, being the first political event that gave credentials to bloggers, it was a breaking out moment for the blogosphere.

For this book, Markos and I traveled all over the country, moving beyond blogging and into research. It seemed about every week, from May through the end of November, we were off to one state or another, for interviewing, writing, or somehow working on the book. There were a couple of times where we were like, `what the hell are we writing about?' But we kept going, kept compiling, and kept on pushing through with getting what we wanted to say into print.

And here it is, nearly done. The copy editors are fact-checking our digs and scrutinizing our grammar (pity them).  Markos keeps emailing me about book tours and interviews (who knows where the time will come). And I'm at the point where a week of internet/email/work blackout has become imperative. But, before that, I wanted to put a note/pitch/post about the book.

If you can pre-order a copy of Crashing the Gate, I'd appreciate it. You'll get it a week before it comes out publicly, with the exclusive "Progressive Partner" book cover. You'll help us get th books message out faster and further. But besides all that and more, I guarantee you, whenever Markos or I are asked to sig a book and see that it's a Partner book, you'll get a personal `thank you' as well.