Journalists are supposed to be striving to be objective. In fact, it's that very attribute that they use as a shield against questions about their own political beliefs: "It doesn't matter who I voted for. When I pull out my pen and notepad, I'm an objective journalist, just reporting the facts."

Most journalists try really hard to live up to that ideal of objectivity -- the rest work for the New York Times.

Case in point: Mark Leibovich.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman announced Tuesday that he had hired a new spokesman, which is not in itself that noteworthy, except that the said spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, is one of the great career vagabonds, ideological contortionists and political pontificators ever to inflict himself on a city full of them.

The Times doesn't even offer this news article the fig leaf of being described as a "news analysis."

The Times was already well on its way to becoming nothing more than a partisan rag -- this is just another step down the path.