Did The Atlantic tell Andrew Sullivan to lay off Palin?

In case you didn't notice, Andrew Sullivan, who's been suffering from a bit of a Palineyurism, suddenly went dead silent. This blog gathers the evidence that The Atlantic reprimanded Sullivan for his Palin obsession. The evidence?

• One of Sullivan's few posts is in German, and means: "What we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence."
• Sullivan posts a Desperate Housewives clip featuring a forced apology. Desperate Housewives apparently also featured a story of a mother claiming a daughter's child is her own.
• Juiciest of all, an anonymous tipster writes "Sullivan is not taking a few days off. He was asked to lay off the Palin stuff and he has responded by refusing to post to his site. Staff are meeting now to decided what to do. I work at The Atlantic."

Sure, it's all speculation, but it's also really strange for the normally prolific Sullivan to go dead silent like that. Setting aside the "tipster", those two posts by Sullivan smack of passive aggression.

Something also prompted Josh Marshall to praise Sullivan today, as well.