There’s outrage in the conservative blogosphere over the possible appointment of Juan Cole to a professorship at Yale. (HT Glenn Reynolds) The argument seems to be that Cole is too much of an extremist for such a prestigious post. The complainers seem to have forgotten that America’s scholars of the Middle East have already honored Cole by electing him to the presidency of the Middle East Studies Association. Cole is the officially designated chief spokesman for America’s scholars of the Middle East. So either it’s wrong to criticize Yale for considering Cole, or the entire scholarly apparatus of American Middle East Studies is bankrupt. We report, you decide.