DEATH TO FALSE METAL

The Republican National Committee voted today not to hold debates on CNN and NBC if they go ahead with planned Hillary Clinton films, a ban that extends to NBC's corporate cousin Telemundo and CNN Espanol (Univision is expected to have the inside track on any debate aimed at Hispanic viewers, but I wonder if it's any such debate will just wind up on MundoFox, or not take place at all).

Meanwhile, at National Review, John Fund defends the notion of "taking back the GOP debates," while Paul Waldman and Kevin Drum say yes, it would be good if the GOP debates were handed over to ideologues.

I agree. I feel about this the way I feel about the continued employment of Jennifer Rubin by The Washington Post. Yes, Rubin is an incompetent partisan hack, as a former Post ombudsman wrote this week -- but as far as I'm concerned, that's why she should be the paper's right-wing blogger. She's an ideal representative of a party that has nothing to offer except spin, bamboozlement, and ideological extremism. A thoughtful, intelligent conservative blogger would be a misrepresentation of the GOP.

Similarly, Republican debates moderated by partisan hacks would give us a much truer sense of what the GOP really is. Kevin Drum nails it:

As a blogger, I would really look forward to making the GOP clown show even more clownish. I know that hardly seems possible, but think about it. "Governor Jindal, do you think Christian churches should merely be free of all government interference, or do you think that state governments should require the adoption of Christian curricula in our schools?" "Representative Ryan, do you think global warming is a myth, or do you think it's actually a sinister plot by the scientific community to destroy the economy?" Bring it on!

Stop laboring to give the Republicans the opportunity to put on a presentable face to the larger public -- when they do that, they're deceiving us about their true nature. They're crazy. We need to see that. We should encourage them o let their freak flag fly.