Demand Question Time

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Pop quiz: Quickly name a cause that conservative organizer Grover Norquist, liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, liberal media predator L. Brent Bozell III, Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuval, former Swamplander Ana Marie Cox, and John McCain/George W. Bush Adviser Mark McKinnon can all sign on to?

Nope. It’s not tax breaks for TV punditry, or government subsidies to improve the food in cable news channel green rooms. This hallowed collection of un-like minded professionals have gathered together behind a petition called “Demand Question Time,” asking the president and Republican leaders to agree to regular question times, along the lines of the remarkable session held last Friday, when Barack Obama attended the Republican retreat in Baltimore.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpVycRpa2L8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

America could use more of this — an unfettered and public airing of political differences by our elected representatives. So we call on President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader John Boehner to hold these sessions regularly — and allow them to be broadcast and webcast live and without commercial interruption, sponsorship or intermediaries. We also urge the President and the Republican Senate caucus to follow suit. And we ask the President and the House and Senate caucuses of his own party to consider mounting similar direct question-and-answer sessions. We will ask future Presidents and Congresses to do the same. It is time to make Question Time a regular feature of our democracy.

What do you think? Shouldn’t we all be more like the Brits?