In that intellectual wasteland known as the typical New York Times editorial, inconvenient facts and simple logic are never allowed to intrude on the pursuit of the editorial board’s agenda or on a good ad hominem attack on former President George W. Bush.

But today’s editorial on the collapse of the case against former Senator Ted Stevens rises to the level of self-parody. I’m no fan of Ted Stevens, who is a poster child for all that is wrong with Congress and members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike. But the abuse of power and ethical violations by the prosecutors last year led directly to their being held in contempt by the judge and the current attorney general, and to the convictions being voided, and the case against Stevens being dropped.

The Times writes, “Given the flagrant partisanship of the Bush Justice Department, it is especially reassuring to see Mr. Holder ignore party lines to do the right thing by Mr. Stevens. It has been far too long since the attorney general seemed interested in enforcing ethics and nonpartisanship in a department that has been shockingly lacking in both.”

So let’s see:  It was the Republican Bush Justice Department that, in an act of gross partisanship, indicted the longest-sitting Republican senator in history last year. And it was the Republican Justice Department that tried this Republican senator, withholding exculpatory evidence to insure his conviction a mere eight days before the general election. Almost certainly because of that conviction, the Republican senator went down in a narrow defeat — fewer than 4000 votes — giving way to the first elected Democrat in the Alaska congressional delegation in almost three decades.

Has “Saturday Night Live” infiltrated the Times? Nah, you really can’t make this stuff up.