In case you were wondering whether former Bush press secretary Andrew Malcolm has left his political activism behind in his current capacity as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, two recent Malcolm blog posts should clear up any confusion.

In the middle of a post about Max Baucus -- a post that otherwise has absolutely nothing to do with either President Obama or Vice President Biden -- Malcolm inserts this passage:

By the way, members of the Senate were paid $6 for an entire term back in the nation's early days, way back even....

...before Joe Biden became a senator, which was when Barack Obama was in sixth grade. Today, these congressional folks are paid 29,000 times more than that -- $174,000 a year for vital work such as Baucus is seen performing here on Dec. 22.

And in the middle of a post about First Lady Michelle Obama -- a post that otherwise has absolutely nothing to do with Sarah Palin -- Malcolm inserts this:

Sarah Palin's favorable poll ratings, btw, have risen steadily in recent months to the mid-40s. But although neither woman holds an elected office, that's something entirely different.

Neither of those completely irrelevant passages likely surprise regular readers of Malcolm's work. He regularly sprinkles in snide comments about Obama and (especially) Biden, even when they -- as in his Baucus post -- have nothing to do with anything. And he frequently touts what he wrongly claims is Sarah Palin's strong popularity -- again, even when it has nothing to do with anything.

If the Los Angeles Times wants to pay a political operative to take potshots at prominent Democrats while openly auditioning for a role as spokesman for Sarah Palin, I guess that's their business. But they should at least follow longstanding newspaper convention and list him as “Andrew Malcolm (R-CA).”