Wednesday Goldfarb Bashing

John Schwenkler was none too happy with the news that The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb is off to the McCain campaign, got challenged on it by James Joyner, and offered this nice reply:

What Radley Balko said, I guess, though let me add that my initial gripe was with what this appointment reveals about the kind of politics Team McCain is going to be engaging in, and whether or not they would be a break from those of "the past". And a quick look over the most recent weeks of Mr. Goldfarb's repertoire of "online activities" - Nancy Pelosi's observation that the Iranians helped to tame hostilities in Basra amounts to "glorification of the enemy"; the New York Times is "committed ... to fighting no wars at all" (Really? I didn't get that memo); Democrats concerned about the strength of the Iraqi government are "divorced from the reality-based community"; scummy campaign advisers are simply the result of "day jobs which may create conflicts of interests"; the Democratic party is "chicken"; and so on ad nauseam - suggests that his contributions to the McCain message may end up being ... how shall we say? ... less than statesmanlike. Is Goldfarb "qualified" to make such contributions? Of course. But I stand by my initial expression of disgust.

Goldfarb, meanwhile, is only one of a pretty large number of people who've shuttled back and forth over the years between organizations McCain controls and organizations Bill Kristol controls. That's not to say that junior staff at The Weekly Standard are going to be controlling policy in the McCain White House, but McCain obviously has an affinity for a Standard-style approach.