Via Moe Lane, enjoy as Michelle Goldberg crashes head-on into a logical roadblock set for her by Megan McArdle. Nothing unusual in a progressive lecturing conservatives about incendiary rhetoric while remaining blissfully oblivious to the “Bush = Hitler” droppings that littered our political landscape for eight years. What’s unusual is getting to watch her cope, in real time, with the choice between (a) admitting that the left’s climate of hate was poisonous and potentially dangerous to Bush and (b) accepting that violent nutjobs are responsible for their own actions. Tough call for a liberal — either she forfeits her side’s alleged monopoly on virtue or she embraces *shudder* personal responsibility. It takes a while, but she finally settles on an answer. Good to know that the left is still virtuous.

Update: Another Michelle Goldberg golden moment, from this very same episode of Bloggingheads: “I certainly wouldn’t be shedding many tears if Dick Cheney dropped dead.”