Michael Goldfarb, Another Unscrupulous Right Wing Attack Dog Emerges

Is There Just No End to These People?

[Editor's Note:  This Forum was first attracted to this story when it mistakenly read that the name of Mr. Goldfarb's online magazine.  We thought it was 'Free Bacon' instead of its rightful name, 'Free Beacon'.  We apologize for any confusion this may have created.]

The dominance in the media of Conservative attack artists is well known, but every time one thinks their growth has stopped another hate monger comes out of the wood work and onto the stage.  The latest is a person named Michael Goldfarb, whose innuendo and unsupported attacks of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has thrust him into the limelight.

Now this Forum not only has no problem with heated debate, it actually encourages it.  But for heated debate to be constructive it must have some integrity, participants cannot just go around making things up or engaging in scurrilous tactics.  But that apparently is much of what Mr. Goldfarb does.

 

At 11:42 a.m. on Feb. 14, a conservative online magazine called The Washington Free Beacon posted a dispatch about a speech Chuck Hagel gave in 2007 in which it said he called the State Department “an adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister’s office.”

Wow, that’s pretty serious stuff.  There must be an unimpeachable source for this.

The report was based on “contemporaneous” notes an attendee posted online.

Well, maybe not.  But this McCarthyism is important and has an impact.  For example South Carolina Lindsey Graham, a Senator endangered by a potential primary opponent and needing to make an ‘attack dog’ name for himself took the unsubstantiated report and ran full speed with it.

An hour later on the floor of the United States Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urgently cited that statement as another reason to delay Mr. Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary.

Mr. Hagel denied saying it, and no recording has surfaced.

As for Mr. Goldfarb, he is a product of the typical cowardly anonymous funding by Conservatives.

At 32, Mr. Goldfarb is a founder of The Free Beacon, which is gaining prominence as a conservative clarion; a onetime presidential campaign aide to Senator John McCain, who provided critical support for the filibuster; and the strategist for the Emergency Committee for Israel, an anonymously financed group that advertises against President Obama and Congressional Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel. On top of that, he is a partner at Orion Strategies, a consulting firm whose clients have included the national governments of Taiwan and Georgia.

And yes, like most in his profession he uses his political positions to make a buck.

Often working with money from major Republican donors, most of whom have preferred anonymity, Mr. Goldfarb has been in the middle of nearly every major partisan dispute of Mr. Obama’s presidency — over Iran, Israel, terrorism policy and now Mr. Hagel and guns. For a time, Mr. Goldfarb worked as a communications strategist to the leading bêtes noires of liberals, the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

And engaging in questionable practices, well that’s just a normal part of the program.  And when he is attacked, like most Conservative blowhards he just responds in a personal manner rather than refuting the charges.

The liberal writer Lee Fang got a taste when he wrote an article for The Nation linking work that Orion has done for Taiwan to articles in The Free Beacon voicing criticism of the Obama administration for blocking a sale to Taiwan of F-16 jets.

Mr. Goldfarb denied any connection between his work at Orion and the articles, saying he did not personally handle Taiwan’s account or write the articles.

But The Free Beacon responded viscerally, with a report featuring pictures of Mr. Fang — who formerly wrote for the anonymously financed liberal blog ThinkProgress that frequently attacks the Kochs — shirtless and blowing a thick cloud of smoke. The headline read: “High Times at The Nation.”

Anyway, welcome to prominence Mr. Goldfarb, and let us know when you actually gain some integrity and can support your positions with reason, logic and data.  Everyone wants that type of person in the debate.  Oh and here's a bit of information for Mr. Goldfarb.  Being featured like you have been in the New York Times is not helpful to you, the way that people like you will be rejected is by publicizing your activities.