Via the Washington Free Beacon, what’s unusual about this isn’t Bashir looking for excuses to inject Mormonism into his coverage of Romney. That’s par for the course; he was much more heavy-handed about it last week. What’s unusual is that this is the closest to lighthearted that I’ve ever seen him, more a tribute to the edifying effects of booze than a serious knock on Mitt. You would think under those circumstances he’d jettison the whole segment as not worth the heat he’s going to take for dragging Romney’s faith into the debate, even implicitly, but no. I’m not sure where he goes from here over the next six months but I know who I’m betting on as biggest MSNBC newsmaker of the 2012 campaign.

As further reading, here’s a nice study asserting that the media’s coverage of Romney has been more positive than its coverage of Obama so far this year. Print it out and put it in a time capsule to be opened on November 7. Exit question: Does this mean the left now regrets all the “dry drunk” crap that was thrown at Bush while he was in office?