The weekly profiles Harvard’s man-about-campus and his recent troubles.

Over this past year, Peretz’s distance from the magazine has been extreme. Even to many within The New Republic,where he has been known mostly as a bullying voice on the phone, Peretz has come to be seen increasingly through the lens of The Spine. “When Marty’s name came up at TNR, it was more often than not in a mocking context,” says one former staffer. “People made fun of his blog items for being bigoted and for being incoherent.” After the controversy over his September blog post, some on the staff started pushing for Peretz to give it up.

Whatever Peretz’s problems, how can you respect someone whose checks he signed not having the balls to put his name to such a nasty quote? Gross.

Meanwhile, a New York Times Magazine profile is in the works….

(Full disclosure: Peretz gave me my first job out of college, something for which I’ll always be thankful, and I spoke—on the record—for that Times piece.)