Honesty requires one to engage in honest ideals, and his ideals are not honest ones—and once you go down that path, there is nothing to “sell out” to. I would describe Chomsky as “consistent” if anything.
A man can be honest even if he’s mistaken. I respect Chomsky because he acts on principle — even though his principles are often wrong. IMO he has this in common with Ralph Nader — another gadfly of the left.
I wish we had some like them on the right wing, but they were purged and demonized by the neocons a decade or more ago. Hell, I wish we had a right wing at all.