In return for Martin Kramer’s having exposed his blog shenanigans, Juan Cole has launched a particularly ugly attack. Cole likes to call folks like Kramer and me “McCarthyite,” but look at his tactics. Martin Kramer has finally responded to Cole, and the comeback is hilarious. (Just follow the links.) But I think Kramer has summoned up more good humor than Cole deserves for the sort of underhanded innuendo and guilt by association Cole deploys. This fellow is the head of one of the most important scholarly associations in America. He’s also an “expert” regularly consulted by major media. Yet Cole is allowed to get away with playing by the ugliest sort of rules. Cole’s behavior does the art of blogging no honor. The blogoshere’s freedom can sometimes turn it into a cesspool. I hope the blogosphere can also use that freedom to clean itself up.