Apparently it was Bitchslap Andrew Sullivan Day. Glenn Reynolds put down his Chihuahua smoothy long enough to deliver as pointed a smackdown as he's ever done. Excerpt:

I do confess that I think that winning the war is much more important than Abu Ghraib, and that viewing the entire war -- and the entire American military -- through the prism of Abu Ghraib is as unfair as judging all Muslims by the acts of terrorists. Andrew has chosen the role of emoter-in-chief on these subjects, and he's welcome to it, though he would be more convincing in that part if he didn't count wrapping people in the Israeli flag as torture.
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As Mickey Kaus has noted, Andrew can be excitable. A while back he apologized to me for some of his criticisms during the election, and more recently he has apologized to his readers for his waffling and defeatism on the war last spring. Perhaps he'll apologize for this at some point in the future. But, I confess, I find the question of what Andrew thinks less pressing than I used to.

Heh. Indeed.

Update: Speaking of uncharacteristic rants, Pejman goes so far as to say "bullshit" in a column. Okay, he really said "bulls***", but reading between the lines isn't too hard when they're a few light years apart. Excerpt:

I probably shouldn't even bother to write this because life is short, but it appears to be important to point out to Andrew Sullivan and his snide and newfound fan that in all likelihood, the reason "conservative bloggers" are upset and angry about the Newsweek screwup is that it cost lives in the Middle East and it could have cost a lot more lives as well. In addition--and this is a somewhat important point, so please pay attention Political Animals and New Republic senior editors--it harmed our country's prestige and standing on the basis of a story that was entirely false. It is the kind of story that can fan rather vicious flames, and if you want to fan flames, you damn well better make sure that you have your facts right. If you do, feel free to publish the story. If you don't and you publish the story anyway and people die as a result and your country ends up suffering diplomatically . . . well . . . it ain't a good day at the office, now is it?

Update: Dean weighs in as well. Considering that he, like Glenn, has been one of Andrew's staunchest supporter, this is pretty tough stuff. Unfortunately, this won't bring Sullivan back to sanity. His newfound friends at the Daily Kos are probably begging him to come out like David Brock. Anyway, excerpt:

Jon, I'm sorry, but when you bring in stories of how a detainee had his crotch grabbed, or had lotion rubbed on him, and juxtapose that with stories of what may be very real and upsetting abuses like putting someone in solitary confinement with a light burning 24 hours a day, you weaken your argument considerably. And, to be blunt, while I've long been one of Andrew Sullivan's defenders, quoting him these days on the subject of the war is just laughable. The man is no longer rational on anything involving the war or the Bush administration. He simply isn't.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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