Howard Kurtz writes up the brouhaha over the Post's new conservative blog, "Red America" and gets some comments from Washingtonpost.com Executive Editor Jim Brady.

Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, said Domenech was hired because "we were completely unrepresented by a social conservative voice." He said his goal "is to provide voices from as many perspectives as possible" and that Domenech is not intended to balance anyone in particular on his staff.

Fine enough, but then why isn't there a blogger as liberal as Domenech is conservative? And wouldn't Brady have been wise to have debuted "Red America" at the same time as, say, a "Blue America"? Or is all of this just falling into the "Crossfire trap" by attempting to reach intellectual parity with two incongruent points of view operating from the fringes?

Part of the problem with the hiring of Domenech is not that he's conservative, but that he can occasionally seem unreasonably so. Further, his commentary doesn't always rise to the level of sophistication that an institution such as the Post ought to demand.

To wit:

As Augustine, Domenech has engaged in numerous personal attacks, some of which were compiled by the blog Dragonfire. Domenech has called cartoonist Ted Rall a "steaming bag of pus"; said Teresa Heinz Kerry looks like an "oddly shaped egotistical ketchup-colored muppet"; called Pat Robertson a "senile, crazy old fool"; and described Post.com's "White House Briefing" columnist Dan Froomkin as "an embarrassment."

Other notes from Kurtz's piece:

• Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has written the Post a letter encouraging them to adopt a liberal blog.

• Daily Kos and Atrios are posting examples of apparent plagiarism from Domenech's earlier work.