Man, it sucks to be Howell Raines. The former New York Times executive editor's reputation continues to drown, yet people keep gleefully tossing water on 'im.

Here's the latest, from a profile of Joe Lelyveld by Stephen J. Dubner in the new New York:

As the age of mandatory retirement encroached, [Lelyveld] tried to hand off the job to his like-minded deputy, Bill Keller. But Keller lost out to Howell Raines, who had run the paper s editorial page and who, before a single retirement party could be thrown for Lelyveld, began to disparage Lelyveld and the newspaper he had been running. By the time Raines was installed, onetime subordinates and friends would scurry away from Lelyveld at cocktail parties, fearful of being associated with a regime that had been suddenly devalued.

Raines, meanwhile, introduced to the newsroom his own form of arrogance, a more virulent strain, which in the end proved deadly. He was dismissed within two years, having left the very institution a wreck. Lelyveld was called upon to return, which produced a more triumphal coda than he could have written himself. He stayed just long enough to restore order and to ensure the installation of his original choice, Bill Keller, as executive editor.

Order restored to the kingdom! The king vindicated. Huzzah! Pass the mead.

The Scoop of His Life [NYM]