Politico‘s Ben Smith is on JournoList. He, too, gets in on “private conservative conversations when they’ll have me,” he wrote on his blog today.

Largely, Smith sympathizes with WaPo‘s Dave Weigel, who resigned today, saying WaPo set Weigel up because they never thought to inquire or expose his personal political views when they hired him.

“The Post set Weigel up for a fall, and themselves for embarrassment, and that’s what they got today,” Smith wrote.

Smith says there’s a “broader” debate going on within journalism these days on how opinionated journos ought to be. “My personal view is that ideological and neutral journalism can flourish side by side, each going places the other is unwelcome, and each correcting
for the other’s weaknesses,” he wrote.