I am thrilled to announce that Lee Stranahan, who blogs at LeeStranahan.com, has agreed to guest blog here at patterico.com.

I am excited about this for several reasons.

First, Lee has recently established himself as a credible voice criticizing media bias and dishonesty among the left. I have linked his work here several times in the last few days, on subjects ranging from how the media ignored death threats against Republican legislators in Wisconsin, to how a dishonest meme spreads among the left, to his decision to quit the Huffington Post due to their mistreatment of Andrew Breitbart.

At every point, Lee has demonstrated his integrity by writing the truth even when it means taking on his ideological brethren. He self-describes as a “pro-choice, pro-single payer, anti-war, pro-gay rights independent liberal with years of work in print and film backing those positions.” But if he catches his side lying, he’ll say so. He has proven it, time and time again.

I can offer no greater testimony than this. Some months ago, Lee asked me for an introduction to Andrew Breitbart. I not only brought them together, but I told Andrew that this particular lefty was someone honest whom he could trust. They ended up talking for hours about Pigford, and now Lee is working for Andrew to expose the fraud and corruption underlying that case. Lee has come to see that the leftist caricature of Andrew Breitbart is a false one . . . and I think that may have opened his eyes to how some on the left operate.

Eventually, I hope to try to foster something almost unheard of in the blogosphere: a full and open debate between honest people from both the left and right. While he has clearly awakened to the way that leftist outlets can conspire to distort the truth and spread false stories, he is still a dyed-in-the-wool lefty, as far as I can tell. And yet . . . an honest one. For years I have been looking for someone like this — someone who disagrees with me on fundamental issues, but with whom I can have a dialogue that is respectful of the issues and the personalities. I’d like for Lee and the commenters here to be a part of that dialogue.

But that’s for the future. For now, Lee is focused like a laser on media bias.

Lee tells me that the Daily Caller is going to be running a piece tomorrow (Monday) about the Huffington Post’s banishment of Andrew Breitbart. As relevant background, when he announced he would no longer blog at HuffPo, Lee wrote:

One very loathsome aspect of this story is something that Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff told me in a long phone call about Andrew Breitbart several months ago. Roy knows and worked with Andrew and when the issue of Andrew Breitbart being a racist came up, Roy told me “No, of course Andrew isn’t a racist.”

Roy went on to say that while both he and Arianna Huffington knew that the charges of racism being hurled at Andrew weren’t true based on their years of personal dealings with him that they were in a ‘bad position’ to say anything about it.

From what Lee tells me, Sekoff is denying that quote. The Daily Caller will run the story today, including Sekoff’s denial — and some evidence from Lee supporting his claim.

But Lee has more evidence in support of his claim. And he will be detailing it on Monday — here, at patterico.com.

So stay tuned. It should be an interesting day, and an interesting partnership.

And please, welcome Lee Stranahan to the site.

P.S. Aaron Worthing will, of course, remain the regular, daily guest blogger. Lee’s schedule is not fully decided, but he has indicated he may want to post a couple of times a week, perhaps on Mondays and Thursdays. Maybe you guys can help me convince him to post more often. It will help if you give him a warm welcome.

Lurkers are invited to de-lurk to express their opinions. I know you’re there. I see you right now!

P.P.S. The Daily Caller piece is already up here, Sunday night. Stranahan is quoted extensively. It is well done and worth a read.

Stay tuned for Stranahan’s elaboration!

He has been posting intermittently for a while, but seems to be back with a vengeance with the eruption of this whole kinetic deal in Libya we’ve got going. Here is a taste, from yesterday: In six weeks, Obama fails miserably at what Bush père did so very well in one. My favorite part, I think, is in an update:

Oh, yes, I definitely saw this coming:

President Barack Obama told congressional leaders there are no plans to use the U.S. military to assassinate Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi — despite the administration’s policy of seeking regime change in the North African country — according to sources familiar with a Friday White House Situation Room briefing.

“There was a discussion of how we have other ways of regime change,” Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told POLITICO. “It’s not our role to do anything at this point from a kinetic point of view. It is our goal for regime change, but we’re not going to do it from a kinetic point of view.”

So yeah, add that to Adm. Gortney’s “guarantee” that Kadafi is “not on the target list” and I think you’ve pretty much got the picture here. We’re going to keep all of our options right out on the table, including holding our breath until we turn blue and we get really dizzy. Except the one option which would really work, right away. That one we’ve ruled out repeatedly.

Kadafi’s possibly the safest person in Libya, at least for tonight. He’s got Obama’s word on it. Even if Obama could just push the button and Kadafi would magically, instantly, disappear without a hair being harmed on any other LIbyan’s head, Obama wouldn’t do it.

Yeah, we’re going over there in large part because he is killing his citizens, so let’s fight a war (did I say that out loud?) and kill the little people . . . but for goodness’ sakes, let’s not kill him! (By the way, John Bolton, as you might guess, disagrees.)

As Beldar indicates, he most definitely did see this coming. Just go to his main page and keep scrolling.

P.S. You know who has no problem with targeted killings? Qadhafi!

Bizarre:

The White House website proudly says ‘President Obama is committed to creating the most open and accessible administration in American history.’

But try telling Vice President Joe Biden’s staff that, after they held a local reporter in a closet for hours after he was invited to cover a Florida political fundraiser because they did not want him talking with the guests.

Follow the link for a picture of the inside of the closet and more details.

The Orlando Sentinel reporter was ushered into the closet inside wealthy property developer Alan Ginsburg’s Winter Falls mansion, after being told that Joe Biden and Senator Bill Nelson had not yet arrived. . . . He was told he could only come out when the politicians were ready to give their speeches.

Powers told The Drudge Report: ‘When I’d stick my head out, they’d say, “Not yet. We’ll let you know when you can come out.”’

Your punchline below.