Sullivan is on vacation. As for what his views are, or would be, that's anybody's guess these days.

In retrospect, Sullivan has turned out to be a David Broder-like poseur. His vaunted objectivity is an affectation. The gay issue aside -- where he has been eloquent and persuasive -- he turns out just to be another dimestore leftist. A lot of people were eventually turned off by what they perceived as his Johnny one-note focus on gay marriage, and others by his bizarre, psychologically implausible turnaround on the war.

What turned me off was his hysterical, totally unfair criticism of Ann Coulter. He would link to folks like Buckley and Horowitz, who turned out not to say at all what AS said they said about Coulter. And he cited trivialities in support of his hatred of her.

Whatever else anyone wants to think of Coulter, she is far wittier than AS (who has zero apparent wit, actually) and she has a spinal cord AS does not. As for me, I think the man went insane with jealousy. Coulter is simply a better, more logical and more entertaining writer, by far.

I think it was in Powerline recently that AS was quoted as saying he was turned off by the vile, voluminous hate mail he has gotten. Apparently it influenced his pov, which is understandable in a human way. But my own guess would be that he was more influenced by his crowd, and by the pressure he felt to conform if he wanted to remain accepted. He is not a man I would want in a foxhole with me.