There is no question Tom DeLay can be criticized for various missteps and failings—David Frum does a good job of balancing the good and the bad here. There are right ways and wrong ways to criticize someone, though; you can likely guess how the front-page NYT story chose to portray Tom DeLay:
At his peak, Mr. DeLay enforced iron party discipline, built on loyalty, political assistance and, critics said, a heavy dose of fear.
When the NYT wants to insert its own editorializing into an article, it usually uses the Critic-O-Matic—a device that churns out anti-Republican, liberal-friendly quotes with the attribution “critics say.” That machine must have been working overtime here, since there’s no follow-up to the accusation that Tom DeLay lorded over his subjects with a mighty scepter of fear.
If we flip to the editorial page, we discover who the “critics” are:
Incredibly, the G.O.P. majority Mr. DeLay dominated with a mix of campaign lucre and whiplash fear has shown no resolve to face up to his damaging legacy.
Same fear, only now with a heavy dose of whiplash, too. Whenever you read “critics say” in the NYT, remember that the “critics” are usually the NYT journalists themselves.