The New York Times' best political writer (by far) ...

... is definitely Frank Rich, not necessarily for this weekend's column in particular, since he has been very consistent, but in general. These days it seems to take an arts critic to do justice to the mendacity and insanity of national politics. Those nurtured in the political chattering class are simply too inside the canned babble to see any further than the characters in Flatland.
(Sorry about the mixed metaphor - 2-dimensional characters on a flat page, three-dimensional can. No time to work on it just now.)