They’re clearly the real victims here RT @buzzfeedben: Anti-Hagel Campaigners Furious Over “Friends Of Hamas” Blooper buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/anti…

— Matt Duss (@mattduss) February 20, 2013

Opponents of Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel are fuming in the aftermath of sloppy work by their allies that has backfired and risks turning their cause into a joke.

The bumble: A thinly sourced claim that Hagel had taken money from a heretofore unheard of group called “Friends of Hamas,” floated by the conservative website Breitbart.com, and sourced to Capitol Hill.

“This sort of thing drives me crazy because it undermines legitimate concerns about Sen. Hagel, his views and financial associations,” said a Senate Republican aide involved with the anti-Hagel efforts. “In this business we deal in facts or the pursuit of facts and making up groups like the Friends of Hamas distracts us from legitimate questions as to what private foreign foundations and wealthy foreign individuals are contributing to the Atlantic Council or investing in Sen. Hagel’s firms.”

Even odds that “Senate Republican aide” is the same one that leaked the original smear to breitbart.