The blog fight is on! Yesterday, "Captain Ed" posted an interview with Mike Huckabee. In a vain attempt to get someone - anyone - attending CPAC to ask anything remotely approaching a difficult question, I responded ("NoMoreBlatherDotCom"), the "Captain" responded, and now I have the feeling I'm about to be banned from yet another site.

I posted the following comment:

I just scanned it, but I didn't hear any in there about "Huck"'s immigration stance, despite it being so much of an Achilles heel that a five-year-old who knows just a little about the issue could end his candidacy with just a few tough questions.

Addressing me, the "Captain" says:

I asked 14 questions of Huckabee on various policy points after prepping for about an hour during the day, in the middle of writing 7 posts. I note from your web site that you have two posts ... in 2007. Pardon me if I don't take advice from you on conducting interviews, and invite you and your rather snotty attitude to go somewhere else if you don't like it here.

Trying to be just as diplomatic as I can possibly be, I posted the following in return. This comment has been moderated, most likely because of the large number of links:

My first post on Huckabee was back in 2004 on my other site, and I've mentioned him in about 25 other posts (search function on each page). I've also asked those to whom I was given access some difficult questions (1, 2), tried with others, and tried to encourage others.

Think of my comment as less trying to pick on you specifically and more a plea that the blogosphere rises above the MSM M.O. of acting as a transcription service.

P.S. You do know the link I included to your own site has a nofollow tag, right?

For an example of that transcription, see his Giuliani post.

For another example of me attempting to shame those in the blogosphere who are given access to politicians to do some actual reporting, see the NoMoreBlatherDotCom here.

Note also that just recently I've requested interviews with and received no reply from the Los Angeles Archdiocese and Rudy Giuliani (via Patrick Ruffini). I also sent a question to Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin without a reply. However, Giovanni Peri of UC Davis was kind enough to reply to a question I had.

Those who are intellectually honest might want to wonder why there's almost no intersection between the set of those who will ask tough questions and the set of those who are given access to political leaders.

3/8/07 UPDATE: Oddly enough, the Captain never did approve my final comment, for one reason or another.