NY Times breaks new ground, labels (liberal) Congressman a "wing nut"

It was from the Times' Week in Review piece on Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, who's made the news in recent weeks by using the kind of aggressive, tough-talking and controversial political rhetoric that's been associated with conservatives movement for at least the last 15 years in this country.

The Times though, immediately swoops in for its assessment of the new Democratic player: "Alan Grayson, the Liberals’ Problem Child."

This was a preview headline found in the Metro section [emphasis added]: 

Representative Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, is a wing nut, which is notable because he hurls his nuts from the left.

And this passage drove the point home:   

Mr. Grayson could be the latest incarnation of what in the American political idiom is known as a wing nut — a loud darling of cable television and talk radio whose remarks are outrageous but often serious enough not to be dismissed entirely. Mr. Grayson is the more notable because he hurls his nuts from the left in a winger world long associated with the right.

The Times suggests Grayson's a "wing nut," and then concedes the derogatory term is usually used to describe denizens on the far right fringes. ("Moon bat" is probably the liberal equivalent.) But how unusual is it for the august Times to call a sitting member of Congress a a "wing nut"? Based on a search of Nexis, I'm pretty sure Grayson is the first Congressman who's ever been slimed that way by a Times writer.