Who Was Behind the 'NY Times' Hoax Letter?

Why would you prank the world's greatest newspaper and not take credit for it? That's what we're left to wonder with no one yet having stepped forward to claim responsibility for yesterday's bogus letter-to-the-editor from Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris.

On first consideration, the psychology of the author is opaque. The letter, decrying Caroline Kennedy's attempt to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate, lacks any over-the-top flourishes that would mark it as either a hilarious stunt or the work of a genuine nutcase.

That does leave a few possibilities, however. Perhaps the writer was...

-Steve Schmidt. John McCain's chief attack dog has time on his hands these days, and he's still seething at the rough treatment his guy got from the Times during the campaign. For a Republican, there's no greater insult than being made to look cozy with the French.

-Jayson Blair. What better way for the Times's most famous fabulist to prove he's still got it than by sneaking some more hokum into his old paper? (Update: Blair, via email, says, "Nope. Not guilty on this one.")

-The Masked Avengers. In passing himself off to Sarah Palin as Nicolas Sarkozy, Marc-Antoine Audette got hooked on the thrill of impersonating French politicians. It's not even about the comedy anymore, man.

-Bill Kristol. With his contract to write a Times op-ed column set to expire in a few days, the ambivalent conservative pundit is looking for a way to save face. "The Times? Why would I keep writing for that discredited old rag?"

-Bertrand Delanoe. Yeah, it was actually him, but after seeing how incredibly pompous the repeated phrase "We French..." looked in print, he felt sheepish and denied everything.