Atrios today takes Andrew Sullivan to the woodshed for a good old-fashioned, and well deserved, spanking.

If I might borrow a phrase from Sullivan, here are the “money quotes”:

[Sullivan]’s already shifting the goal post, requiring that I also demonstrate that I ever praise [President] Bush and also wants recent examples.

The thing is, of course, is that no matter what I write in “defense” of the challenge, debate team gold star winner Andy will declare victory. You see, it all depends on how we define “the left” and what it means to criticize them.

Wait, you mean Sullivan’s the type of person to smugly claim victory in a debate, brooking no discussion all the while? Oh, yeah, there was that June 2002 debate at the New School when he was paired with the lamentable Norah Vincent against Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice and Carmen Vasquez of the New York gay community center. Sullivan (and possibly even Vincent) rode a testosterone high for weeks after that one.

[Post-publication addendum: As for “Atrios Punts,” the brief post Sullivan added to his site this afternoon, it is the most supremely ignorant, dishonest, and lazy collection of sentences ever uttered in the blogosphere. Sullivan wants “three specific instances in which Atrios has criticized the left.” Atrios already gave him 11, but Sullivan, who obviously hasn’t read Eschaton except while on a desperate search for what makes for a truly interesting blog, can’t be bothered. Looks like the blogosphere has a new Village Idiot.]

[Post-publication addendum: Out of bounds, or par for the course? Consider what you’re dealing with.]