Over the past week or so, I’ve hammered Juan Cole over his substantive errors and elisions, and watched in amazement as he’s engaged in denial and deletion to keep his imaginary reputation for infallibilty intact. But he practically bowled me over when he issued a call, on his weblog, for posters at Daily Kos to dig up dirt on me. Cole wants to cast me as some sort of intelligence operative, burying my academic standing and credentials. Over at Sandstorm, I tell the story of his outburst, and then engage in a bit of good-natured humor (at his expense, of course).

The odd thing is that Cole later removed his fatwa against me from his site. Maybe he realized that it might be played back to him every time he laments the “new McCarthyism,” or gets huffy about Campus Watch. Well, it will get played back. Here’s the president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), a man who’s supposed to represent the conscience of his field, deliberately launching a campaign of what he calls “oppo research”—politically-motivated dirt-digging for the purposes of character assassination. I have a hard time taking Cole seriously, which may be why my rejoinder to him is so tongue-in-cheek. But lots of misguided people do take him seriously, so I’ll just have to keep at it.

Oh, when you read the entry, whenever you encounter a link at a place that usually wouldn’t invite one, click on it. I’ve put in some surprises.