Extreme Mortman today begins a new regular feature — a peek inside the blog-reading habits of our nation’s top reporters and media celebrities. Here is Jeff Dufour, the hard-working, very talented, and very funny features editor for The Hill newspaper. He writes the influential and widely-cited “Under the Dome” gossip column. And now, Jeff Dufour:

I generally begin with Drudge, Wonkette’s Gossip Roundup and Hotline’s Wake-Up Call’s Gossip Buffet to see, in the immortal words of Johnny Caspar, “What’s the rumpus?” (and of course, to see if they’ve linked to anything of mine).

Around lunchtime, it’s on to National Review Online’s The Corner and Daily Kos to see what’s happening on wing right and wing left. I’m always curious about the difference in tone: NRO tries to keep it light, while Kos is generally full of bile and venom. I’ll also usually stop at Cilizza’s “The Fix” on Washingtonpost.com, which is already a good place for some quick meta-analysis.

On days when the Senate is in, I’ll check More from the Floor, produced by Sen. Pat Leahy’s staff. It’s IMHO one of the most underutilized resources out there — a blow-by-blow account of who’s saying what on the Senate floor, in something close to real time. Only a couple congressmen have blogs they update with much frequency: Reps. John Conyers and Mike Conaway, for instance.

I’ll generally finish the day with James Taranto’s OpinionJournal and Mediabistro’s Fishbowl DC for some media news. Perhaps another go at Wonkette: The new writers have proven they can dish the potty humor like Ana, but it remains to be seen if they can still break news. And I do try to check DCist, if for no other reason than there might be a happy hour special I’m unaware of.

Also Read: Blogs The Famous Media Reads: Jake Tapper & Blogs The Famous Media Reads: Howard Fineman