Martin Eisenstadt’s Blog

I was saddened to read in my frenemy Arianna Huffington’s little blog that my old protege James O’Keefe has been outed on his latest sting.  It turns out his latest “investigation” involved calling liberal think tanks and trying to goad them into accepting hedge fund money in order to pay for self-serving liberal policy papers. Aside from the fact that it just isn’t as sexy as posing as a hooker who walks into an ACORN office, or trying to seduce an NPR executive, James’ tactics were just too obvious and blundering.  Sorry to say, but his latest efforts have backfired.

Now, my loyal readers will remember that James is a former intern of mine and that I essentially taught him everything he knows about the so-called “dark arts” of political and media tomfoolery.   (It was just last March, in fact, that I wrote about how James’ takedown of NPR’s Vivian Schiller was in reality a personal favor to me.) Trusted readers will also remember that James played for my beloved Harding Institute team in Washington’s Think Tank Softball league that I detailed in my book (as well as mentioned in my denial of an alleged Elena Kagan sextape).  In fact, it was in our season-ending 9-1 loss against the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) team that I muttered something to James about revenge for when EPI president/pitcher Lawrence Mishel struck paydirt with a low-inside brushback (thankfully, though, I was wearing my Harding-branded plastic cup - as is my habit on Fridays).

So I’m quite grateful that James once again picked his target as a personal vendetta on my behalf.  I can’t fault James for his loyalty, but unfortunately the apprentice still has tactical lessons to learn from the master.  How did poor James stumble this time?  Allegedly, he made calls to EPI and other left-leaning, softball-dominant think tanks from a “hedge fund” with ties to an Ohio teacher’s union called “Ohio Education Association” representing 130,000 “so-called” teachers. Only one problem: the email domain used by the caller - “ohioedassoc.org” - was registered to Shane Cory - one of James’ underlings at his new company Project Veritas. Oops.

Anyone who’s read my book knows that it’s a perfectly simple thing to register a domain name anonymously.  It’s a tactic I’ve “consulted” on many times, and not doing so is what tripped up Mitt Romney’s hamfisted negative campaign against Fred Thompson in the 2008 presidential election. True students of the dark arts will remember that a website named “PhonyFred.org” was registered to a known Romney campaign consultant.  The site was up for barely a day before internet sleuths discovered the ruse.  Compare this to my successful “Abrad2345” Giuliani stealth campaign that withstood the scrutiny of an ABC investigative report, New York Times digging, and countless other attempts to solve its mysterious origins.  It wasn’t until a full two years later that I finally revealed myself as the true source of this campaign as one of many revelations in my critically-acclaimed book, “I Am Martin Eiesenstadt: One Man’s (wildly inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans.”

And for those doubters who think that this is the first time young James has taken a chip off the old Marty, then I direct you to this YouTube video wherein I show that even his masterful ACORN takedown was an homage to my own work.  James, I love you.  But next time, seek the master’s advice.