Via @AdamBaldwin is this tweet by Joan Walsh… and it has a question that has some veritable teeth to it. No, really. This is a great question, and I wish that I had thought of it first:

Why has @CNN not found itself a progressive equivalent to righty Hugh Hewitt, a GOP debate panelist, for the Democratic debate?

— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) October 13, 2015

Of course, I would have asked that question for completely different reasons that Joan Walsh probably did. You see, Ms. Walsh labors under the delusion that openly being too progressive would help the Democratic candidates, and I do not. I would pay good money to have a moderator up on that stage tonight who would consider it his or her sworn duty to make all the candidates applaud the Occupy movement as modern-day Founding Fathers, call for the confiscation of privately-held guns, explain that abortion should be legal until you can see the baby’s eyes, and whatnot.  Variants of which are, by the way, all mainstream Democratic opinions: just ask Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton*.

And that, of course, is why there won’t be any progressive activists moderating that debate. Even just a left-wing equivalent of Hugh Hewitt – who is, of course, a perfectly reasonable fellow and no caricature – would be unacceptable to the DNC**.  The unofficial motto of the Democratic party for these debates is No surprises: and while I think that CNN wouldn’t mind a surprise or three (I can’t imagine that they’re looking forward to tonight’s ratings with any real pleasure) the Democrats probably have a veto here. Which is such a shame, because I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to political dumpster fires, and the one that’s scheduled for tonight is regrettably going to be highly boring.  Throwing out – or up – some of the red meat*** that the Democratic base likes might at least salvage the night for me.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Note that Clinton later backtracked on that. A little. Gotta love those Kinsley gaffes, eh?

**Also: the Left doesn’t really have equivalents to people like Hugh; or at least, not on the national level. Their system self-selects for screaming lunatics and hypocritically venal professionals, separated by a whole lot of ideological wasteland.  Which is their… privilege… of course.

***Yes, there was originally a vegetarian joke here.  Then I remembered that a couple of my friends don’t eat meat, and I felt personally bad about making that joke. It’s a cruel and terrible thing to have scruples, let me tell you…