Politico ought to rename itself "Bash-Fox-ico." With that name, Politico's acquisition by NBC-Universal would happen even faster.

Here are the headlines concerning Rupert Murdoch and the News Corporation on the front page of Politico this morning.  Murdoch "evil"?  Murdoch as "Mubarak"?  Murdoch testimony is "a ruse"?   "News Corp. hindering investigation"?   What's going on here?  When did Politico turn into the Huffington Post or Mother Jones?   When did Politico decide that bashing Fox was a major mission for a publication that's supposed to be about politics and elections?

One answer, of course, is that Politico is merging back into the traditional liberal MSM.  Politico started as a brash insurgency--befitting its own origins, back in 2006, as a breakaway from the dull old  Washington Post.  But that insurgent apple never truly fell too far from the tree.  And so now, Beltway values--liberalism and snobbery--are re-infecting Politico.   And as a second point, related to the first, rumors abound in DC and NYC that Politico is playing a careful game of footsie with NBC-Universal, which includes, of course, the lefties at MSNBC.  The idea is that Politico would somehow be folded into NBC.   It would be a cool synergy, in a way, combining smart print reporters with a TV platform.

But first, of course, Politico has to get right--which is to say, get left--with MSNBC.   It has to take a compatible editorial line to MSNBC, and that includes, of course, endless Fox-bashing.  So if Politico becomes Bash-Fox-ico, that might be a smart business plan, but center-right America will see that Politico is, in fact, more of the same liberal MSM.