Disgraced former University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill — best known for labeling the victims of the World Trade Center attacks “little Eichmanns” — has found a second life. Since being fired by his university for “serious research misconduct,” Churchill has cultivated a diverse fan base of left-wing extremists, Chicano extremists and Muslim extremists.

Churchill spoke earlier this week at the University of California at Davis on the topic “Zionism, Manifest Destiny and Nazi Lebensraumpolitik: Three Variations on a Common Theme.” His appearance, according to the campus newspaper, sponsored by Students for Peace & Justice with the co-sponsorship of Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Student Association and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan.

Two things are (particularly) troubling: First, that this crank who sees the victims of 9/11 as the villains (Nazis even!) is being sponsored by the campus’s mainstream Muslim group. (Although this isn’t the first time Churchill has found an eager audience among Muslim students on a California campus.) Second, that the only two groups that bothered to protest were the pro-Israel and Republican student clubs. Are Churchill’s views any less offensive to campus Democrats and students who aren’t pro-Israel activists? (I sort of fear the answer to this question in a campus — and general political — climate in which every issue becomes partisan and polarized.)

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