Hoaxer Martin Eisenstadt Fools Media Once Again With Palin Adviser Prank

Today the story ripped around the blogosphere and cable news outlets that one of the McCain aides that have until now been anonymously disparaging Sarah Palin has stepped out from behind the curtain: Martin Eisenstadt.

At his blog, Eisenstadt reveals that he was "a foreign policy adviser on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden." He goes on to say that Palin "simply didn’t have the ease of knowledge that we come to expect from a major party political candidate. Other slights came up, too: Not knowing the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas. Or the difference between the Shiites and Suni." The New Republic blogged about Eisdenstadt's confessions, while MSNBC aired a quick story on the newly-revealed source.

The only problem? Martin Eisenstadt didn't work for the McCain campaign. In fact, Martin Eisenstadt doesn't exist at all. His think tank -- the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy -- also doesn't exist. Eisenstadt appears to be an elaborate hoax that has fooled major media sources several times this year, with the Palin "confession" being the latest. Other hoaxes include:

• Convincing several reporters, including Mother Jones' Jonathan Stein, that Eisenstadt, in his role as a McCain adviser, had gone to Baghdad and given an interview to a local Iraqi television station advocating that casinos be built in the Green Zone. Not only did the person behind Eisenstadt create a semi-convincing YouTube video, he also put out a press release.
• Spreading the rumor that Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, had a romantic liason with Saturday Night Live cast member Kristiin Wiig. Writing as "McCain strategist," he blogged that: "But as night wore on to early morning, Joe finally got some “quality” alone time with a certain female cast member. I’m not that familiar with the show, but I know it wasn’t Tina Fey or Amy Poehler. The skinny brunette, I think it was. Kirsten, maybe? Joe’s got good taste: she’s definitely hotter in person. And judging by her taste in plumbers, maybe a closet Republican." This was picked up by several websites, though with more skepticism.
• Claiming that Joe the Plumber was actually an in-law of Charles Keating, the major figure behind McCain's Keating 5 scandal. This too was picked up by multiple blogs and press sources, including CBS News, before someone bothered to Google Eisenstadt's name and figure out he was a hoax.

So who, exactly, is Eisenstadt messing with here? His blog and views are obviously meant to satirize right-wing pundits and think tankers, but his ability to frequently fool the media seems like he may be poking fun at the Fourth Estate just as much, if not even more. It takes only a moment of poking around at his blog, or the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, to realize he's a fraud. Warren G. Harding is, after all, generally regarded as one of the worst presidents in history.

So what is he? Is Eisenstadt a meta-humorist riffing on the shallow nature of the 24-hours news cycle and neocon buffoonery, or desperate attention whore with far too much time on his hands trying to gin up some Internet notoriety? Vote here.