In case you hadn't heard, the WaPo is hosting an online chat today featuring, among others, Prof. Instacracker and Firedoglake's Jeanne D'Blog, Jane Hamsher.

Guns will be drawn starting at 1 pm EST. Submit your questions in advance and watch them get ignored. Here's mine:

Question for Jim Brady:

Can you explain what Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor, meant when he said "You don't expect someone to strip naked, swear or attack you under those circumstances," in a WaPo interview about the Howell incident?

Specifically, the naked part. From what I've read of your (Mr. Brady's) and the Right Wing media's reaction to this, it appears as if there is an attempt to portray Left Wing bloggers as ignorant, deranged, naked savages who do not deserve a place in the "national discourse".

The overwhelming majority of comments in reaction to Howell's factually challenged assertion that Abramoff had given to both parties were polite and backed up with evidence. But those commenters are being slimed with a broad brush along with the obscene ones.

Lefty Bloggers are US citizens with opinions just like you, Mr. Brady. But like most reasonable people, we don't appreciate being lied to, we don't appreciate being silenced and we don't appreciate being smeared.

The issue of "internet civility" is a non-issue. Hire someone to remove obscene comments from the WaPo blogs and be done with it. It's not hard to do, Lefty Bloggers do it on their own blogs all the time.

If the WaPo doesn't re-institute the ability of readers to post polite, if critical, comments, I think it would be reasonable to question your motives.

Follow-up question: did you have a similar negative opinion of the Right Wing bloggers who "broke" the Dan Rather/ Texas National Guard "scandal"?