I don’t know who threw the first punch, but it looks as though Ann Arbor’s resident expert on all things middle eastern, Juan Cole, is trading verbal blows with the National Review’s Jonah Goldberg. Goldberg, among other things, has gone on the record calling Cole “thin-skinned and intellectually insecure.” Cole, not to be outdone, has posted a response on his site, calling into question Goldberg’s credibility. Here’s a clip:
I am saying I do not understand why CNN or NPR would hire someone to talk about Iraq policy who has not read a book on the subject under discussion. Actually, of course, it would be desirable that he had read more than one book. Books are nice. They are rectangular and soft and have information in them. They can even be consumed on airplanes. Goldberg should try one.
In what I think is completely unrelated news, the bloated and gin-soaked journalist Christopher “I’ve drunk so much I’m conservative” Hitchens apparently feels that Cole is “a little weasel.” To my knowledge, Cole has yet to respond.
And, while we’re on the subject, here’s one more clip from professor Cole’s response to Goldberg:
The corporate media failed the United States in 2002-2003. The US government failed the American people in 2002-2003. That empty, and often empty-headed punditry, which Jon Stewart destroyed so skillfully, played a big role in dragooning the American people into a wasteful and destructive elective war that threatens to warp American society and very possibly to end the free Republic we have managed to maintain for over 200 years. Already severe challenges to our sacred Constitution have been launched by the Right. Goldberg is a big proponent of “profiling,” which is to say, spying on people because of their ethnicity rather than because of anything they as individuals have done wrong. That is only the beginning, if such persons maintain their influence on public discourse.
For what it’s worth, I think Cole could beat the shit out of Goldberg and Hitchens at the same time.
One Comment
I agree, a total “smackdown” as Kos would say.
For a bizarre viewing check out the “traitor” gallery at probush.com. Isn’t Lawrence Ferlinghetti dead? The writer Jessica Hagedorn has got to be the most random and obscure traitor.
Even more fun is the GOP babe of the month’s website and her multiple use of the term “skank”.