<<who the hell is Juan Cole and why should I care what he thinks?>>
from the Wikipedia article, Juan Cole:
<<John Ricardo I. "Juan" Cole (born October 1952) is an American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia.[1][2][3] He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on television, and testified before the United States Senate. He has published several peer-reviewed books on the modern Middle East and is a translator of both Arabic and Persian. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment. >>
Although he doesn't usually comment on domestic American politics unless it's in the context of some Middle East issue, this one comment seemed interesting to me, and I thought it would be interesting to the group.
It seemed strange to Juan Cole - - and it certainly seems strange to me - - that the Senator from Mass can be determined by a voting margin of only 52% but that when the health care of all America comes up for a Senate vote, its proponents need to assemble a 60% majority to be sure of its passage. That was an interesting idea, didn't matter to me who it came from, but I attributed the source in order to avoid looking like I was claiming the credit for it.
Anyway, I wasn't telling anyone they should care what Juan Cole thinks - - just throwing out an idea I saw that happened to come from him. Woulda been just as interesting, IMHO, if it had come from Bugs Bunny. Doesn't really matter who the idea came from, if it's interesting to think about.
