SuperFriends and the NYT

I must have missed this in all the excitement yesterday, but NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller is playing the victim card.

Critics of his handling of the McCain story are "trying to change the subject to us," Keller whined, and McCain's advisers are attempting "to use the New York Times as an opportunity to rally the base."

Changing the subject from weak and unsubstantiated allegations to irresponsible reporting and editing practices at one of the nation's largest newspapers?? Now why would anyone want to do THAT?!

Let's just put it this way: When I was in college, a story like the one that appeared on the front page of the Times yesterday would have earned me a great, big, fat F -- that is, if my professors had allowed me to turn in such a lousy effort at all, which I suspect they wouldn't.

And as for the GOP using the story to rally its base ... GASP!! How dare they??

The Times is only one of modern conservatism's most-reviled targets. This "story," which is turning out to be more of a scandal for the Times than for McCain himself, is just the latest example of why. It's "arrogance run amok," to borrow a phrase from Sydney Ellen Wade.

Conservatives were so distracted by the infighting among the SuperFriends that they were beginning to lose sight of their archenemy from the Legion of Doom.

Thanks to Keller and the NYT, the race is falling back into perspective for them.