The Democrats appear to have lost a key ally in the Alito fight: The New York Times. RedState thinks the Times is bailing out, based on the fact that this profile of Alito in the Times today is even-handed and fair:

I know, I know: it’s freaky in the extreme to contemplate that the Gray Lady is not coming out to play on this one, and very possibly we’ll see a bunch of solemn, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger explanations about why President Bush should not be allowed to destroy Western Civilization by putting this judge in SCOTUS. But as for right now; well, we forget sometimes that this is the New York Times. Alito is one of their guys – or, more accurately, he’s one of their readers’ guys. At the very least, he gets a nice article for the scrapbook for his grandkids to read.

Of course, the Times editorial page is already “bemoan[ing] lost opportunities.” But if RedState is right and the news pages are going to play fair on this one, that’s bad news for Democrats who plan to oppose Alito.