Now, the next installment in Extreme Mortman’s regular feature: a peek inside the blog-reading habits of our nation’s top reporters and media celebrities. And what a huge honor today. Jeff Zeleny is the National Political Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, a post he has held for five years. He is a contributor to The Swamp, the new blog written by the Tribune’s Washington Bureau. Before coming to Washington, Jeff worked as a general assignment reporter in Chicago. He came to the Tribune from the Des Moines Register, where he spent more than three years covering state politics and the opening stage of the 2000 presidential race.

Now, please give a warm Extreme welcome to the great political reporter Jeff Zeleny — here are the blogs he tells Extreme Mortman he reads:

The number of political blogs seems to grow by the day, but my favorites are rooted in real reporting, rather than opinion. That’s not to say I don’t check out purely opinion blogs - like talk radio, I think it’s useful to tune in when I can - but I don’t rely on those sites nearly as much. Finally, as helpful as some of the information here can be, it’s not nearly as important as doing something that might sound a little retro: dialing the phone or even better, knocking on doors and talking to real voters.

So in no particular order, the blogs I try to check out a few times a day include:

• The Fix
• Hotline On Call
• PoliticsNH.com
• Taegen Goddard’s Political Wire

While not necessarily blogs, I never miss a day without:

• The Note
• First Read
• Wake up Call, Last Call, Hotline
• The Morning Grind
• Slate
• Wonkette

Several times a week, I try to check out these blogs (some partisan, some not):

• Swing State Project
• Real Clear Politics
• Daily Kos
• My DD
• Red State
• Hugh Hewitt

I live in Washington and I’m interested in the media, so I can’t miss these:

• Fishbowl DC
• Gawker
• Romenesko

If I am traveling to a particular state for a story, I always try to check out the latest blogs from those states. This zone of my bookmark section is, as they say, under construction and needs to be beefed up before the Midterm campaign kicks into high gear.  I check Gordon Fisher’s take at Iowa True Blue, South Carolina headlines at scheadlines.com, and Politics Extra.