You really have to hand it to the New York Times -- they have a talent for bias that other newspapers only hope to achieve. Whether a reporter writes about sports, the weather, or certainly this week the obituaries, the Times will find a way to editorialize about the election or the war. Today's example can be found in an otherwise innocuous article about a reincarnated Buddhist saint who currently serves on a mission in Russia at the Dalai Lama's behest.

While interviewing Erdne Ombadykow, believed to be the latest reincarnation of Telo Rinpoche, about his efforts to restore Buddhism in the predominantly Mongol enclave of Kalmykia, the Times managed to sneak this into the story above the jump (on the web site):

"We are all reincarnations," said Mr. Ombadykow, who has been Mr. Ombadykow for 32 years.

"As I see it, every human being and every animal is a reincarnation," he said. "If George Bush dies - with so many good things in this life - when he dies you would want to bring him back so he can make peace through the whole world."

Then, tangled in his own logic and with Iraq in mind, he laughed. "Of course, that won't happen," he said.

Ha ha! There's nothing like a defrocked Buddhist monk to use for passing moral judgements on Presidents, I tell you. I give this effort an eight. It doesn't quite reach the pinnacle of Gray Lady bias, which came when a story about how the Army reached out to Iraqi youth by providing soccer equipment wound up buried in the Sports section. So far, the Times has refrained from inserting its editorial bias into its Food and Classified sections, but perhaps an alert CQ reader might find something I've missed.

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