Welcome back to The Washington Mall, your favorite twice-per-week private email about what’s really going on in this town—on the Hill, in the West Wing, over cocktails at Le Dip, and on K Street, with an occasional peak into the inner workings of the D.C media establishment, too. To wit, I just learned that The New York Times is close to naming a politics reporter to cover the “right wing media” after a nearly eight month search.

Some had assumed that the position, which had been widely mocked by the right wing media, itself, was getting shelved during the succession from outgoing executive editor Dean Baquet to Joe Kahn. But I’m told that they are close to announcing their hire for a job. The job description initially called for a candidate with a “backbone to withstand aggressive blowback,” with the ability “to build and maintain source relationships even in adversarial situations” and “report accurately, critically and fairly on people with extremist views.”

Included in this email: Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Gavin Newsom, Adam Laxalt, Glenn Youngkin, Anita Dunn, Susan Rice, Kari Lake, Roy Cooper, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump, SKDK, and many many more…

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Was Dunn returning to the White House, many wondered, because she knew Joe Biden needed the help and that the connection, despite all the relevant disclosures, would inevitably be good for business after she swung the revolving door back to the private sector? Or was she gunning for a senior post, perhaps chief of staff after Ron Klain stepped down? Was it both? This is Washington, not the priesthood—people don’t do things for altruistic reasons alone...