I think the statement made by the inspector was a request for you to do his job and justify your use of the pendant cord with a code reference. He couldn't just come out and say due to his limited experience and knowledge of the code, he didn't have a clue if it was permitted or not, but rather he said, "I don't know if I like that".
Cite the code references already posted by SolarPowered, and make him either accept or reject the installation.
By the way, inspectors are required to cite the code reference violated when they reject an installation. We should all insist upon those code references when we get bad news.
