Andrew Busch offers a more detailed version of the Kondracke defense of Churchill; Let’s not fire him, let’s study him:

Instead of being fired, perhaps he should be studied and examined, much as one might probe the victim of a once-rare psychiatric disorder that has become rampant. Ward Churchill might be more valuable to the opponents of the academic left employed than unemployed.
Above all, he can serve as a living window into the intellectual, moral, and political bankruptcy of the left.

To borrow a point made by Brit Hume last night, Churchill isn’t there to teach “how to be a parody of a leftwing jackass” or “I hate America 101.” He is supposed to be a scholar and a teacher and a role model. It seems to me he’s none of these things. Busch writes:

After all, though Churchill is now on the hot-seat, his opinions, or some slightly moderated version of them, are a dime a dozen in the academic world. He is, though he will hardly confess it, a rather tedious commonplace.

Yes that’s right. There are lots and lots of characters like Churchill. And they, like Churchill, will eventually fall out of the limelight and continue to do what they do. There is, right now, no social or professional pressure to keep these guys in line. And by “in line” I don’t mean they shouldn’t “speak out” or “dissent” or any of that kind of thing. I mean there’s no pressure on them to be professionals. Or at least there isn’t enough pressure. There is bone-snapping pressure of conservative not even to pursue PhDs! I simply don’t believe that the “chilling effect” on conservatives can get much worse. Meanwhile, the warm, nurturing, environment for champions of Jackassery couldn’t be much more encouraging. Hang Churchill (metaphorically of course). Send a signal. If Free Leonard Peltier or Free Mumia types want to get jobs living off the public teet, poisoning the minds of students, fine. But at the very least let’s make it just that much harder for them. It will still be far easier for one of them to get a good job than it will be for a decent, scholarly, professional conservative.

Studying Churchill like he was a lab rat isn’t a good idea precisely because he is exactly that — a lab rat. Typical in every way; the baseline. No one studies lab rats qua lab rats anymore. You only study them after you’ve done something to them. The only thing that would make Ward Churchill interesting for study is if you cut him loose. See how the other lab rats react. I’m sorry if I sound to Machiavellian about all this, but I’ve known too many decent, brilliant friends pursue PhDs and then get the shaft simply because they weren’t interested in boutiquey leftwing causes.