In a typically thoughtful post, Ross Douthat provides Democrats with some sound advice: Do not attack Sarah Palin. Behave as though Sarah Palin does not exist. I couldn’t help noticing, though, that he refers to the “perfervid theories aired this week” about Palin.

Of course, one of the main homes for the perfervid and ugly theories aired this week–a kind of grotesque conveyor belt to the MSM–is the website of Ross’s colleague Andrew Sullivan. Ross seems to have admirably–if elliptically–expressed how this has undermined the respect he once had for Sullivan. Many of us find ourselves in the same boat. It is still hard for some of us to grasp that Andrew’s ravings have the imprimatur of The Atlantic, a magazine with an extraordinary and rich history, one characterized by intellectual sophistication and maturity.