Pull it out towards the rotor side. And te cushion lever is actually quite simple.

When you go to put the new bearings in the carrier, clean the carrier of all grease, then clean it Thoroughly in warm soapy water and dry it off. Put the new bearings in the freezer for a couple hours. Heat the oven up to 200ish and put the carrier in it. Warm it up for 20 mins or so, remove it and put a thin layer of anti seize on the places the bearings will seat.
Take the bearings out of the freezer and they should push in with minimal effort.

I actually have never redone the needle bearings in the rear linkage on a zilla before. I have only owned mine for about 6 monthes.  When I have dealt with needle bearings, I did just like you said, put a lil grease in there to hold em in place and be patient.
I dont have fat fumble fingers, but I sometimes have drunken fumble fingers, and I usually get the needles in place first try.
Something that would be cool is if we could find replacement needle bearings that have a cage, similar to a wrist pin bearing. Just need to measure them up and do some homework.  Think no more searching for lost needles rolling around the shop floor!

I actually ended up ordering the original cushion lever bearing tools from Alpha Sports in Maine. They were a little pricey but having the right tool for the job made it very easy to press the old bearings out and the new bearings in. I don't intend to ever sell my LT so I figured I might as well just buy them. It looked like you could find lots of original tools on their website, just get the tool numbers out of your owners manual.