If a Democrat asks a question at a debate for Republican presidential candidates, far-right activists reflexively (and incoherently) define this as a "planted" question.

But to really appreciate what a "plant" looks like, you'll have to turn to the Bush administration.

For example, once the Bush gang's initial rationale for the war in Iraq was exposed as a fraud, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice launched a public-relations campaign to shield herself from the fiasco (Rice frequently went on national television to tout the notion that we can't wait to be sure Iraq is a threat, because we "don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud").

According to the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler, Rice's strategy included ordering an aide to "plant a question" about her possible presidential ambitions.

She had a very deliberative public relations strategy when she became Secretary of State to help erase the images of how ineffective she had been as National Security Adviser. And I describe how one of her aides even planted a question with a friendly journalist to ask whether she would be interested in running for president -- to give her the aura of someone who might have presidential aspirations, make her seem more powerful than she was.

And that all helped negate American memories over her very direct role in the invasion of Iraq.

Now that's a planted question.