What on earth is a 'planted question' in the first place?

UPDATED

The right-wing outrage over Wednesday's GOP debate on CNN has passed the point of ridiculousness. It is just pathetic that these people really think their candidates should not have to answer difficult questions.

The backlash started after it turned out that a homosexual retired soldier asking about "don"t ask, don"t tell" has an affiliation with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton"s campaign. The network was forced to apologize and scrubbed the exchange from its repeat of the two-hour debate, even though the Clinton campaign says retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr was not acting on behalf of the Democratic presidential front-runner.

This, by the way, was Kerr's question:

My name's Keith Kerr, from Santa Rosa, California. I'm a retired brigadier general with 43 years of service. And I'm a graduate of the Special Forces Officer Course, the Commanding General Staff Course and the Army War College. And I'm an openly gay man.

I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.

Why on earth does it matter if the person who asked that question is a supporter of Hillary Clinton? Is it any different than if a Log Cabin Republican had asked it? Or if the Republican mother of a gay soldier had asked it? Or if a Republican who just believes that discrimination is wrong had asked it?

Again, from the Washington Times:

Reports flew on the Internet that at least nine of the 34 questions posed via YouTube videos — on topics ranging from corn subsidies to Social Security reform — came from voters who have ties to Democrats or a vested interest in asking the Republicans to go on record.

"Would it have killed CNN to Google some of these people?" conservative blogger Jason Coleman asked.

Why should CNN have Googled them? So that they could deny them the right to be heard based on their political affiliations?

The men on that stage chose to run for President of the United States. They were on that stage, presumably, to answer questions from citizens of the country they want to lead. The man who asked the DATD question is not only a citizen, but someone who dedicated 43 years of his life to the service of his country. And Republicans think he has no right to speak if what he has to say will make one of their candidates uncomfortable.

What on earth has the Republican Party become?

UPDATE

Steve Benen writes:

Let’s take a deep breath here. Say, hypothetically, we here at The Carpetbagger Report decided to host a presidential forum, and I invited readers to submit questions for the candidates. Once I had a complete list, I’d go through them and pick the ones that seemed interesting, provocative, policy-oriented, relevant, etc. The goal would be to produce a spirited, though-provoking discussion.

Would I do background checks to see where the questioners interned years ago? Probably not, because it doesn’t matter. Whether questions came from candidates’ harshest critics or their own family members is largely irrelevant — the point is to consider the questions themselves on the merit.

[...]

I’m at a loss to understand how so many conservatives could complain so bitterly about such nonsense. CNN hosted a debate, Americans submitted fair questions, candidates answered them. So what, exactly, is the problem? That CNN didn’t impose ideological tests on voters with inquiries?

Even by the right’s embarrassingly low standards, this is just dumb.

I would add to Steve's observation that, even by the right's usual dumb standards, this is just embarrassing.