This is a relief.

He's taking a few days off.

I've been doing a little re-evaluating of the Atlantic's flagship blogger over the past few days.

Do not get me wrong--Sullivan has been nothing short of vile since Palin became the VP candidate, and has been on a general nasty downward trajectory for two years now, making him unreadable during that time.

But.

His work has been scintillating in the past, and I am grateful for that. He isn't remotely the same man now, save on the occasional issue (torture), and even there his general viciousness probably does more harm than good. However, I have to remind myself that he is a physically sick man and that the sick are commended to our care. There's nothing we can do to actually treat his illness (apart from prayer), but we can remember that sick people lash out and we have to gauge our response accordingly.

Not easy to do when he repeatedly calls the Pope a closet case, expresses sadistic glee about the opening of divorce files and publicly questions the maternity of a special-needs child, but it's something I have to do regardless.