Behind the scenes on Capitol Hill in recent weeks, the stodgy world of Senate custom has clashed with the newfound influence of the blogosphere.

And although Bill Frist, as majority leader, is supposed to protect Senate tradition, the Tennessee Republican has recently found common ground on one issue with both liberal and conservative saber rattlers in the world of real-time political opinion.

At issue is a bill (S 2590) that would require the creation of a federal database of information on more than $1 trillion in federal grants, contracts, spending earmarks and loans. The legislation sponsored by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been blocked by other senators’ anonymous “holds.”

Frist, through a blog appearing under his name on the Web site of his political action committee, VolPAC, encouraged bloggers who back the legislation to try to identify which of his colleagues were blocking the bill.

Bloggers figured out that the Senate’s most senior Republican, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and its most senior Democrat, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, prevented the bill from reaching the floor before the August recess. The senators, both veteran appropriators who guard the prerogatives that come with that assignment, eventually said they had needed more time to study the legislation.

As of Sept. 5, it looked as if Stevens and Byrd had dropped their opposition. But late that evening, Stevens reinstated his hold. Within a day, Stevens had relented a second time. But as of Wednesday evening, an anonymous Democratic senator had put the legislation back into limbo.

In an unusual move Wednesday, Frist thanked the blogs, many of which have been critical of him as majority leader.

“I am grateful for the support of the blogosphere and other groups who are passionate about bringing more, appropriate transparency to the federal budget process,” Frist said. “Some way, somehow, the Senate will vote this month on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.”

Whether or not Frist keeps that promise, the efforts to shake loose the legislation seemed to demonstrate the grass-roots power of blogs.

Politicians who cannot prevail through traditional avenues in Congress are finding that a few notes on a Web site can incite helpful activity.

“It does indicate the power of the blogs,” said Andrew Moylan, a government affairs manager for the National Taxpayers Union, which supports the bill. “Twenty years ago it would be impossible to find out who had a secret hold, but the organizing power of the Internet uncovered this hold.”

After Frist used his VolPAC Web site to encourage bloggers to call Senate offices and ask about the then-anonymous hold on the bill, the cause was picked up by liberal blogs including TPM Muckraker and DailyKos, as well as conservative blogs including Porkbusters, whose members began calling every senator’s office to ask whether the lawmaker was responsible for the delay.

Fiscally conservative groups including the Club for Growth and National Taxpayers Union joined in the effort to reveal the culprits blocking the legislation.

On Aug. 29, Frist, who at times has had trouble keeping the Senate’s GOP majority marching in one direction, followed up on his VolPAC blog by criticizing his colleagues, saying, “It is deeply ironic that bipartisan legislation dedicated to transparency in government has been obstructed by the least transparent possible means.”

Frist spokeswoman Carolyn Weyforth said the majority leader “responded to the blogs on VolPAC, and then it sort of snowballed.”

While the blogs continue to chatter and Frist works to remove the holds on the bill, Coburn and Stevens — who had a tense relationship before this issue — are still sniping.

Last year, Coburn led a crusade to kill funding for what became known as Stevens’ “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska. Coburn essentially lost that round and earned the ire of the famously cranky Stevens.