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We come not to talk politics, but to talk about how BlackBerry is functioning in our nation’s capital. The superb website Politico describes the situation in Washington regarding BlackBerry devices. Turns out, seven out of 10 staffers and members of Congress have the devices. Many of them, including Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, show a level of addition to them — you know, when he’s not proposing a bridge to nowhere. The only problem is that some think this can lead and is leading to a greater level of polarization on Capitol Hill. Donors and friends are more likely to have a Congressman’s BlackBerry PIN or device-specific email, allowing them quicker and more personal access than the average constituent.

“If you’re the congressman who comes from a community that’s pretty liberal or conservative, … the kind of constant input you’re getting from [linked-in constituents] — it’s just going to lock you in tighter and tighter to your preconceived positions,” says former Rep. Mickey Edwards, who now lectures on government at Princeton University. “It works toward more polarization.”

BlackBerry proponents argue to the contrary, saying it helps keep members of Congress more savvy to technology and new media. Apparently, some political representatives even talk about ::gasp:: what’s being said on blogs! And maybe, just maybe, it has led Senator Stevens to realize that the Internet, which he can access through his BlackBerry, is not a series of tubes.

Still criticism abounds. Particularly, that more information is not necessarily better, especially when it inhibits your ability to digest and think deeply on a topic before making a response (a subject near and dear to me).

Steve Frantzich, a professor of political science at the U.S. Naval Academy who has written numerous books on technology and politics, says handheld usage “reduces George Washington’s ‘cooling saucer’ by allowing members less time for deliberation and more tendency to respond without much thinking.”

In words of wisdom that echo far beyond politics, Frantzich says having a BlackBerry makes a member of Congress “always ‘on,’ with little downtime or little ability to say, ‘I don’t know.’”

“They’re not really free agents anymore,” adds former House historian Raymond Smock. “They’re captives of whoever contacts them next.”

As always, we have the good and the bad with the BlackBerry. While this might represent the bad, there is certainly some good coming from it. And in the long run, as I’ve said before, there is far more overall good to be taken from the BlackBerry than bad.

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