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(UPI) -- Reasoned discourse is essential to the continued existence of democratic society and its institutions. Even at its most combative, it is generally healthy. No one person has a monopoly on wisdom or revealed truth. The free exchange of ideas is healthy because, if for no other reason, it serves to remind that everyone has the inalienable right to be wrong.

Every once in a while, however, the irresistible impulse arises to ask someone if they would like to have a nice, big, steaming cup of shut the heck up! I'm thinking principally of Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who could do us all a favor by getting on intimate terms with a ball gag, the sooner the better.

Taking full advantage of the notoriety that comes with being a member of the House of Representatives, Hinchey has given a voice and a face to a rumor that has been circulating for some time in the darkest corners of the Internet. You know, the place where the ultra-suspicious-minded among us lurk, looking for ways to connect unrelated dots to prove some grand conspiracy involving the Council for National Policy, the Freemasons, the Trilateral Commission, the British royal family and the late Colonel Sanders.

Revisiting the issue of the forged documents CBS employed in an attempt to derail the president's re-election bid, Hinchey told his constituents it was all a political dirty trick masterminded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.

The issue of the documents was raised, Hinchey said, during a town meeting last weekend in upstate New York. "I have my own beliefs about how that happened. It originated with Karl Rove," he told his constituents, "in the White House."

His office told United Press International the remark came at the end of the meeting and was pushed to prominence by right-wing bloggers who want to "take out" Hinchey, but the congressman was not backing down now that the claim was out in the open.

"It doesn't take an awful lot of imagination if you're thinking about who it is that might have produced these false documents to try to mislead people in this very cynical way," Hinchey said in an interview Tuesday with CNN's Judy Woodruff.

It is not clear what's worse: Hinchey's claim or the fact that any reputable media outlet has given him time to talk about it. In the annals of media manipulations, this one makes the top 100. The left, despite repeated attempts lasting almost a decade, tried to nail President Bush on his Texas Air National Guard service. The stories were almost without end: He pulled strings to get into an elite unit in order to stay out of Vietnam; he failed to complete the terms of his service; he disobeyed direct orders; he failed to report for duty; and on and on and on.

Hinchey, a -- to borrow a phrase -- card-carrying member of the left, now wants the Washington press corps to scurry down a bunch of new rabbit trails trying to prove that Rove was actually responsible for the whole business. In the political trade, this is known as trying to have it both ways.

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