So today there's a bigger photo of a grieving Nancy Reagan on the front page of The New York Times than on the front page of the New York Post.

The Times link doesn't do the photo justice -- it's huge, more than eight inches by six inches; it dwarfs the paper's lead stories (e.g., "Lawyers Decided Bans on Torture Didn't Bind Bush").

Watching the mainstream press over the last couple of years in its dealings with the Bush administration has been somewhat like watching an insecure young adult learn to say no and have a little self-respect. There have been small victories on this road to maturity, and many setbacks. Watching the press's reaction to the death of Reagan, alas, is like watching that same young adult go back home -- to the funeral of a parent who had an outsize personality and sense of self, the very parent whose enormous need to be loved made it difficult for the child to muster a little self-respect in the first place.

The New York Post was always a favored child of Reagan -- the suck-up son. The Times and other non-conservative media outlets rebelled a bit during the Reagan years -- and are now overcompensating. It'll be over soon, but for now it's painful to watch.