Dude, you are SO premature with that suggestion.

Although I'm sure he (she?) means well, blogger Green Alliance's suggestions for a few discussion "ground rules" is hopelessly premature for one simple reason -- the Blogging Tories have not established that they have the right to participate in a civilized discussion. On any topic.

It's not that one of their own, Bill Strong, is a proven pathetic liar (see numerous recent posts on this blog) who refuses to 'fess up when he's caught red-handed. Rather, it's the fact that, as far as I can tell, not one member of the Blogging Tories has shown the integrity to call him on it. Apparently, as far as the BTs go, ideology is more important than integrity. And as long as the lot of them sit quietly knowing that Mr. Strong is a liar, none of them has earned the right to get into the dialogue.

The fact that not one of them has had the honesty to admit the obvious tells me and everyone else all we need to know about the integrity on the other side of the aisle. And the continuing silence just pounds that point in more.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS: Pogge has just contributed to the discussion here and I think he's missing the larger picture. This is no longer about just one hopelessly dishonest Blogging Tory member. If that's all it was, sure, we could all just move on. But there's more at stake here now.

Now the question is how the BTs propose to become some sort of ethical watchdog over left-wing blogs when they can't even look after their own members. How do they propose to evaluate the honesty of our stuff when they won't do anything about dishonesty in their own ranks, even after we rub their collective noses in it?

It's not just about one blogger anymore, Pogge, dear boy. It's bigger than that now.