Thanks to alert reader Julia, we have this from QandO ("free markets, free people"). Roy Blunt--of the Philadelphia Blunts, perhaps?--is running for Tom DeLay's (porcelain) throne in the House, so he's talking to bloggers in conference calls:

When Rep. Blunt opened the floor for questions, the next surprise was that the first question came from someone from GOP Bloggers. He wasn't a part of our group, i.e., the one organized by NZ Bear. How did he get on the call?

What touching innocence... Read on:

This guy then proceeded to throw a softball at Rep Blunt...

Speaking of softballs, maybe Jeff Gannon could answer our winger's question?

essentially asking him if those naughty Democrats were just dirty liars for denying that they had anything to do with Jack Abramoff, and was the Congressman going to fight back properly? Then, the next questioner was from Townhall.com. WTF? I mean, while Townhall has what is technically a blog, Townhall is nothing more than an organ of the Heritage Institute. And they weren't part of our group either. He tossed another softball at Rep. Blunt, asking why Blunt hadn't gotten support from Conservative icons. Icons like...well...Townhall. And NRO. [Townhall's Tim Chapman has notified me that he objects to my characterization of his question. He should feel free to publicly correct me at Townhall.com. Just be sure to get the link URL to QandO right, Tim.—EDF]

So at this point it was obvious that, rather than just talking to our group, which was already organized, Rep. Blunt had pulled in ringers, and, having asked for questions in advance—which I declined to provide, by the way—had screened them prior to the conference call.

Who knew Republican would ever, evet set up ringers to throw softball questions? Except for Bush with Jeff "Eight inch, cut" Gannon, of course... And Scotty, who also shared Jeff's favors... And Bush, during all those fake conversations during the Social Security bamboozlepalooza... And Bush, during all the Partei rallies in campaign 2004...

"Winger ringer"--I like the alliteration....