The HuffPo reports that über-neocon Bill Kristol is going to be a columnist for the New York Times starting in 2008.

Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative who recently departed Time magazine in what was reported as a “mutual” decision, has close ties to the White House and is a well-known proponent of the war in Iraq. Kristol also is a regular contributor to Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume.

Whoa.

Andrew Sullivan suggests the Times made this move to balance the hyper-partisanship of Paul Krugman (who, I confess, I don’t even bother to read anymore, because he has become so monumentally and unbearably self-important):

I guess some naked partisanship on the right is necessary to balance out Krugman. But ideologically, having both David Brooks and Bill Kristol as the sole representatives of the right-of-center is to focus on a very small neocon niche in a conservative world that is currently exploding with intellectual diversity and new currents of thought.

Sullivan fails to mention who these other geniuses of the conservative world are. He also manages to suggest that lone “conservative” David Brooks has had to go up against at the NYT is Krugman, whereas Frank Rich, Gail Collins, Maureen Dowd, Michiko Kakutani, and the editorial-page editor also come immediately to mind when I think of the NYT’s regular Bush-bashers.

This is a huge move for the Times, and it goes way beyond trying to create buzz for the brand. Kristol isn’t just Mr. Neocon. He is a proud George W. Bush loyalist.

I wonder what’s going on.

UPDATE: via Memeorandum, the leftosphere goes ballistic—here and here and here and here and here