Before the MNSBC-Politico Debate, I wondered why in God’s name the Republican candidates would bother giving press and air time to a bunch of liberals asking snide questions down their noses to the GOP about issues not one person cares about. After that debate it convinced me the GOP candidates should be more discerning in their debates.And now, as Ben Domenech notes and I too can confirm, I think the candidates should boycott the Washington Post Bloomberg debate on October 11th. The debate is billed by the Washington Post as “exclusively” about the economy. I had relished them having this debate because a debate for two hours on the economy is precisely what we need.But sources in multiple campaigns tell me they are really suddenly hacked off by the Washington Post and Bloomberg changing the format. According to the campaigns I have spoken to, they too were under the impression the debate would be exclusively about the economy. Now they are being given the impression that after the first hour the debate will go to other questions.Now, if you were somewhere under a rock this past week, you will have missed that Bloomberg News has launched an all out assault on Koch Industries for crimes against humanity or some such — an attack premised on a lot of baloney, half-truths, and bad reporting, but done because the Kochs are of the right.Then there is the Washington Post who posits the man-child Ezra Klein, who has never had a real job in his life outside of left-wing think tanks and subsidized publications, as some sort of business pundit. In other words, the GOP is going to be vetted by a twenty something who actually took to the national airwaves to declare no one pays attention to the constitution because it is so old.The Washington Post also hosts Greg Sargent, the Democratic Party’s official mouthpiece at the Post. The Post hosts Jenn Rubin who claims to be a conservative but has spent the better part of her career at the Post advocating the release of the traitor Jonathan Pollard and routinely bashing Senator Jim DeMint. Then there is Glen Kessler who is the Washington Post’s in house “fact checker” where he is too busy leveling attacks at MItt Romney, Rick Perry and others to check facts.Let’s ignore also that this paper ran with the story about the rock in Texas they can’t be bothered to get a picture of. (By the way, have you heard about that reporter’s criminal record?) Let’s instead focus on the debate’s actual moderators.

Charlie Rose may be the quintessential question asker everyone feels comfortable with, but neither Rose nor Karen Tumulty, the other moderator, have any connection to the world view of conservatives. Never mind that Julianna Goldman is David Shuster’s ex. Yes! David “I’m Keith Olbermann’s attack dog” Shuster. If they were just going to ask questions about the economy, we could all make it through their sneering contempt for the free market long enough to get some substance from the candidates. But Karen Tumulty, who has an impressive body of work, has always struck me and many other conservatives as way too mired in insider lefty Washingtonian hoo-ha. She seems like a charming lady, but then so does Katie Couric and I’d want neither one of them asking Republican candidates questions to help Republican voters decide who should be the nominee when the world views of both strike me as hostile to every one of the candidates on the stage. The candidates are going to have to spend more time challenging the presuppositions of her’s and Charlie Rose’s questions than actually answering the questions. About the only good that will come of it is making Newt Gingrich look awesome as he bludgeons them with his mind.Oh, and have I mentioned that Karen Tumulty was a member of Ezra Klein’s Journolist — the list serve that leftwing activists and journalists used to coordinate hit jobs on conservatives?If the Republicans can boycott Univision because that network attacked Marco Rubio, surely they can boycott the left-wing noise machine.The Republicans should tell WaPo and Bloomberg thanks but no thanks if we are to be denied a debate that few will even see that won’t even focus on the topic the debate is supposed to focus on exclusively.How about you guys with a double digit polling average in Real Clear Politics come down to Atlanta instead and Brent Bozell, the Ryun brothers, and I will ask you guys some real questions by conservatives and for conservatives. You don’t have to say you are bailing on the debate. Just choose a better forum — a conservative one.I’m sure we can make it happen on the same day at the same time. Mitt? Herman? Rick? What say you?