Thank you, NY Times, for giving us four more years of Bush

The public editor of the NY Times decided to explore the question of whether the Times' decision to withhold publication of the article on the NSA surveillance program was made before the 2004 elections. The answer, it turns out, is yes. Bill Keller decided to hold the article on the "eve of the election."

Internal discussions about drafts of the article had been “dragging on for weeks” before the Nov. 2 election, Mr. Keller acknowledged. That process had included talks with the Bush administration. He said a fresh draft was the subject of internal deliberations “less than a week” before the election.

“The climactic discussion about whether to publish was right on the eve of the election,” Mr. Keller said. The pre-election discussions included Jill Abramson, a managing editor; Philip Taubman, the chief of the Washington bureau; Rebecca Corbett, the editor handling the story, and often Mr. Risen. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher, was briefed, but Mr. Keller said the final decision to hold the story was his.

Thank you, Bill Keller, for giving us four more years of Bush.

To be fair, Keller tells us he thinks the article might have helped Bush, not hurt him. I suppose anything is possible, but at least the public would have voted from an informed posture.