Not so long ago, Markos Moulitsas and his site Daily Kos rose to the top of the liberal blogosphere. This was because it’s contributors were well informed, civil and prepared to do the work needed to back up their arguments with source materials and citations.

In keeping with this vaunted seriousness, contributors risked being banned if they pushed “tin-foil” conspiracies on the site: 9-11 threads and discussion of voting irregularities in Ohio in 2004 were routinely censored.

Ever since the site hit the big time about two years ago, however, that has begun to change. Many of the original contributors (all of whom worked voluntarily, while Moulitsas banked the ad revenue) began to drift away and a new generation made itself felt. These newbies were far more aggressive and far less interested in backing up their claims with facts. The site degenerated into name-calling and flaming - a left-wing Free Republic, if you will.

Markos, who has always been ambitious, has allowed the site in recent months to become little more than a rallying post for the Obamabots. Perhaps Sen Obama himself has promised to make Markos his Ambassador to the World Wide Web, or worse, perhaps Sen. Clinton once snubbed him.

Either way, it now seems that any conspiracy theory however outrageous or obscene is fine as long as it’s target is Sen. Clinton.

While Markos may have his reasons for sucking up to the senator for Illinois, the damage done to his site is now near irrepreable.

For the latest example of what now passes for serious policy discussion there I draw your attention to one of this morning’s recommended diaries which speculates - with no evidence whatsoever - that that horrible racist monster, Hillary Clinton, made Obama look “blacker” in one of her ads.

By last year, Markos had earned enough from the site to buy himself a lovely new house in Berkeley.

I hope he got a good deal on it.

To read the diary in question (if you have the stomach for it) go here