All weekend I was hearing from people calling me an idiot, a faker, a know-nothing. All weekend they were sending me “cluck cluck” taunts to debate Cole. All weekend I heard how Cole is the expert who knows everything.
So I wrote today’s column. It uses Cole’s own words to show how their dashboard saint is inconsistent and at times just plain dishonest. I curtailed my own well-known instinct for colorful language and stuck to the facts and the arguments. I even accepted Cole’s debate challenge.
So what have I heard in response? From Cole? Nothing.
From his fans, very little. The few who have written are either still hurling insults or claiming that my column was, in the words of several, “too long to read.” Forgive me if this makes me wonder if perhaps, just perhaps, they’re not as interested in scholarly substance as they claim.
But not one of Cole’s disciples has said I’m wrong about Cole’s distortions and bizarre zig-zags. Not one has said I quoted him out of context or that the quotes I used don’t back up my points. Not one has offered a single solitary rebuttal to any of the substantive points about Iran’s elections, Iraq’s nuclear program, or Cole’s own presumably bloodthirsty support for the war when it was politically expedient.
I at least expected Cole’s biggest fan, James Wolcott, to put down the latest issue of Cosmo long enough to fling another zinger for the benefit of the lunch crowd at Sardi’s. But even Frostburg State’s most famous almost-alum is silent.
Color me unimpressed.