Andrew Sullivan bashes Charles Krauthammer for cynically shifting positions on gas taxes in order to embarrass Obama. Krauthammer points out Sullivan misread the date — the column was written under the Bush administration, not recently. Sullivan apologizes.

What caught my attention, though, was this comment from one of Sullivan's defenders:

One thing Sullivan has that is not apparent in this post is a certain amount of graciousness. Had Mr. Krauthammer sent him an email noting the mistake, Sullivan would have published it, acknowledging his error. (He does it all the time.) Instead, Mr. Krauthammer took out his cudgel. It's an interesting choice.

I'm highlighting it because it's a nice example of the "It all started when he hit me back" tactic I see so frequently. First, Sullivan freely attributes bad motives to Krauthammer. Besides being unsupported by facts, this is, apparently, not a "cudgel." (It is apparently apparently the way a "gracious" person acts.)

Krauthammer, in response, says nothing of Sullivan's motives, only pointing out that Sullivan didn't even bother to look at the date of his column — much do a quick search on his old articles to see if his position had actually changed.

This is unvarnished evil.

Of course, it doesn't occur to the commenter, if he believed his own words, that Sullivan should first have written a nice, private letter to Krauthammer. No: proper protocol is for Sullivan to boldly accuse others of bad intentions via The Atlantic, and for those accused to defend themselves privately.

Read the rest of the comments if you have any question that many of Krauthammer's detractors are quite sure they're able peer into another person's heart (one about whom they seemingly know very little) and judge that soul as morally bankrupt, ill-intentioned, and definitively evil.

The frequent misspellings, antisemitism, and references to asses are lovely, too.