What the difference between an editorial and a news piece in Chicago?

Answer: There is none.

Apparently this passes for journalism in the Windy City?

Reading this text, I would swear that this is an editorial. Afterall, it's not common that you would see a reference to something the Vice-President says as a "juvenile taunt," or an implicit argument supporting vitriol from a National Party Chairman, or an a personal anecdote that can't but hide the author's love of said Party Chairman.

Still, this is from the Washington Bureau Chief of the Chicago Sun Times. Nothing on the page indicated the article as anything from a factual, news article. Perhaps they ran out of room in the editorial section and decided to let it overflow into the "Politics" section?