Blogger's Pursuit of Paternity Issue Verges on Vendetta

Andrew Sullivan, blogger for the Atlantic, has come under fire for hammering John McCain’s campaign on an issue everyone else seems to have gotten over: whether or not Sarah Palin or her teen daughter Bristol is the mother of 4-month-old Trig Palin, Howard Kurtz writes in the Washington Post. Sullivan asked the campaign in two emails last week to “confirm, on the record” Trig’s paternity.

Sullivan’s insistence has infuriated conservatives: The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last said Sullivan was a “disgrace” for the Atlantic. Even his colleagues have doubts—in a veiled reference to Sullivan, Atlantic writer Ross Douthat wrote that those who “bleat loudest” against “Rove-style politics” are “happy to similarly dirty their hands for the sake of their own causes,” citing media coverage of Palin's family. (More Sarah Palin stories.)