Tuesday, April 3, 2007

John McCain and the Jew-Counter


From my Capital Games" column at www.thenation.com....

Every day, the presidential campaigns email to reporters press releases touting the endorsements they have most recently snagged. On Tuesday morning, the John McCain campaign, stinging from the news that its first-quarter fundraising efforts were anemic, zapped out word that GOP moneyman Fred Malek is joining the McCain team as a national finance co-chair. The press release hails Malek:

Fred Malek has been a pioneer in four professions including corporate management, government, politics, and finance. After distinguished service as an Airborne Ranger in the U.S. Army, Malek joined the Marriott Corporation and rose to become president of Marriott Hotels and Resorts. He later served as president and co-CEO of Northwest Airlines.

Malek has played a central role in government over the past 30 years. He has served as Deputy Under Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and Deputy Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He also served President Ronald Reagan in a number of advisory capacities and, in 1990, was Director of the Summit of Major Industrialized Nations--with the lifetime rank of Ambassador.

Malek's political career spans over three decades. In 1972, after Watergate, he served as the deputy chairman of President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Malek was director of the 1988 Republican National Convention and campaign manager for President George H.W. Bush in 1992.


The McCain press shop left out an interesting piece of Malek's history: when he counted Jews for President Richard Nixon. Two years ago--when Malek was leading an investment group seeking to buy the new Washington Nationals baseball team, my friend Tim Noah at Slate reviewed Malek's dark past. Here's what he wrote:

It's one of the more gothic stories about Nixon related in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's The Final Days. As they tell it, late in 1971--the same year, coincidentally, that the Washington Senators moved to Texas and changed their name to the Rangers--Nixon

summoned the White House personnel chief, Fred Malek, to his office to discuss a "Jewish cabal" in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The "cabal," Nixon said, was tilting economic figures to make his Administration look bad. How many Jews were there in the bureau? he wanted to know. Malek reported back on the number, and told the President that the bureau's methods of weighing statistics were normal procedure that had been in use for years.

In 1988, when George Bush pere installed Malek as deputy chairman for the Republican National Committee, Woodward dusted off his notes and, with the Washington Post's Walter Pincus, further revealed that two months after Malek filed a memo on the matter--he'd counted 13 Jews, though his methodology was shaky--a couple of them were demoted. (Malek denied any role and said Nixon's notions of a "Jewish cabal" were "ridiculous" and "nonsense.") The 1988 story raised a predictable ruckus, and Malek beat a hasty retreat from the RNC. As exiles go, Malek's was pretty painless. He still got to run the 1988 Republican Convention (and in 1992 he would be Bush pere's campaign manager). He joined George W. Bush's syndicate to purchase the Rangers, he went on the board of the American-Israel Friendship Society, he took over Northwest Airlines, and he started an investment firm, Thayer Capital Partners.


Counting Jews was not Malek's only shady enterprise. As a Nixon aide, he set up a project that sought to influence government decisions to assist Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign. In 2006, Washington Post columnist Colbert King described this program as "a scheme designed, organized and implemented...to politicize the federal government in support of Nixon's reelection." Citing a memo Malek wrote about the project, King noted,

The Malek memo also claimed another accomplishment: The steward of a dockworkers union local in Philadelphia, an active Nixon backer, had been accused of being responsible for illegal actions of the union's president. The Pennsylvania Committee to Reelect the President asked that the Labor Department rule in the steward's favor. It did, Malek claimed, adding that "this action had a very strong impact on the local ethnic union members."

Malek's responsiveness program was extensively investigated by the Senate Watergate committee. The panel found that the program was aimed at influencing decisions concerning government "grants, contracts, loans, subsidies, procurement and construction projects," decisions regarding "legal and regulatory actions," and even personnel decisions that affected protected "career positions" -- all to advance Nixon's reelection.

Malek, the committee determined, also called for channeling federal grants and loan money to blacks who would support Nixon's reelection efforts and, conversely, away from minorities who were considered administration foes. Equally striking, Malek wanted the program to be falsely structured so that Nixon and the White House would be dissociated from it in the event of a leak.


Malek was serious about keeping his pervert-the-government efforts secret, In a March 17, 1972 memo to H.R. Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff, Malek wrote,

No written communications from the White House to the Departments -- all information about the program would be transmitted verbally...documents prepared would not indicate White House involvement in any way."


Ten years later, the Republican led Senate government affairs committee refused to approve Malek's nomination to be a governor of the US Postal Service, in part because some senators believed he had not be straightforward during a hearing in which he testified about this program. Still, the Bush clan embraced him, and he went on to run the 1988 Republican convention and President George H.W. Bush's unsuccessful 1992 reelection campaign. Last year, Malek's group lost its bid to buy the Washington Nationals. These days. he chairs two private equity firms and sits on the advisory committee for the Scooter Libby defense fund.

The McCain campaign press release quotes McCain saying, "Fred is an inspiring public servant who has served our nation well. I am honored to have his support and look forward to his guidance and counsel in the days and months ahead." Inspiring? How's that for straight talk? Is McCain, who once upon a time campaigned as a good-government candidate, truly inspired by Malek's days as a Nixon lieutenant, when Malek tallied Jews, rigged government contracts, and improperly influenced law enforcement and regulatory decisions? If McCain has to turn to Malek for help in fundraising, his campaign surely is in difficult straits.

Posted by David Corn at April 3, 2007 12:04 PM

8 comments:

capt said...

Mr. David Corn,

"Is McCain, who once upon a time campaigned as a good-government candidate, truly inspired by Malek's days as a Nixon lieutenant, when Malek tallied Jews, rigged government contracts, and improperly influenced law enforcement and regulatory decisions?"

I think it is a yes.


Thanks for all of your work!


Kirk

Gerald said...

Network of Spiritual Progressives

Dear Posters:

While my wife and I were visiting our son, I went to confession. After reciting my litany of sins to my spiritual advisor I said to the priest that I find myself going from believing to wanting and wishing pain and suffering for America and Americans. Unless Nazi America experiences pain and suffering, she will continue to inflict pain and suffering upon the world population.

The priest said to me that America is experiencing pain and suffering right now and I do not have to wish pain and suffering for our people because Americans will not repent and as long as Americans fail to repent pain and suffering will continue.

The priest counseled me as part of my penance to locate and read what the Network for Spiritual Progressives is saying and doing in the areas of justice and peace. The Network of Spiritual Progressives was co-founded by Cornel West, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Sister Joan Chittister whom you will recall is one on my foxes. The Network is based in Berkeley, California.

Rabbi Michael Lerner has a Jewish magazine and he started the Tikkun Community Groups to pursue justice and peace. The home page for the Tikkun website has some very good articles about God, Israel, the Ten Commitments, the Spiritual Left, etc.

As you will recall, I have ripped and I will continue to rip on Israel as a Nazi state. In each Nazi state, like Israel, America, and England, there are people and religions that do seek justice and peace. The numbers may be miniscule but there are people who desire justice and peace for all of God’s children.

My Eighth Doctrine

The Extinction of Catholicism

I write this doctrine with a heavy and sad heart because by 2100 Catholicism will be extinct as a religion. If the trend continues, extinction is etched in stone. There were 460 million Catholics in the world twenty years ago and today there are 360 million Catholics. If Catholics dwindle by the same numbers in the years to come, the religion will be extinct.

The reason for our extinction rests with silence. Catholic laypersons, bishops and priests, and theologians have been silence on torture. 45,000 fundamentalists churches have spoken out against torture but the Catholic Church chooses to remain silent on torture. Plus, Catholics have become very complicit regarding Bush’s policies, programs, and practices of endless wars, mass murders, and war crimes.

Catholics will leave the church and convert to a new religion or they will not practice their Catholic faith. Catholic laypersons, bishops and priests, and theologians must locate their moral compasses in order to head off the extinction of Catholicism.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Gerald said...

Paragraphs from the Nonviolent Jesus and I believe the March 23, 2007 article!

To the question, "Where are you going, Lord?" the answer always returns, "I am going to be crucified for your neglect, your silence in the face of injustice, and the face of injustice that you so continually display to those who have done no wrong to you." The words should ring louder and louder in our hearts until, at last, we find the strength to respond.

"One 15 year old year old called Ban Ismet, hit in the legs, described how she had watched her friend Maha bleed to death. "The shrapnel hit her in the eyes," she said, "and there was blood all over her face. She was dead." These are the sights that Christians wish to hide from themselves, so that they don't have to understand what their civilization means to the other peoples of the world.

"The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which represents about 45,000 churches across America, endorsed a declaration against torture drafted by 17 evangelical scholars. The authors, who call themselves Evangelicals for Human Rights and campaign for "zero tolerance" on torture, say that the US administration has crossed "boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible" in the treatment of detainees."

Now if only the Catholics would make a similar repudiation of torture.

"Only love is more powerful than hatred," the teacher said simply. "Only
love can clean the world of evil." Believe in the power of love - there is no cleansing by violence. Violence can only cleanse us of life, as its brown and sandy footprints across the face of our mother so clearly reveal. It does not bring justice, heals nothing, and destroys the souls of those who practice it or tolerate it. The Christian martyrs knew this, why don't we, who have inherited a far enriched tradition, know it as well?

Gerald said...

Let me be corrected on the article from the Nonviolent Jesus website is March 15, 2007 and not March 23, 2007.

Since I have returned home, there are several worthwhile articles to read starting with the March 15, 2007 article. Even before March 15 there are many very good articles.

capt said...

Iran to release British sailors tomorrow



Fifteen British marines and sailors held captive in Iran for almost a fortnight are expected to fly home tomorrow morning after the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced their release as a "gift" to the UK.

In a surprise announcement during a news conference at the presidential palace in Tehran, Mr Ahmadinejad said the 14 men and one woman would be "going back home" in a move marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad last Saturday and acknowledging Easter.

More HERE

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Do you think Bunnypants is bummed? He can't use the hostages issue to attack on Friday. Wonder what the next excuse will be?



capt

capt said...

Christ Getting In Shape For Second Coming



HEAVEN—Emerging from a grueling 90 minutes of cardiovascular exercise and light lifting for tone, Son of God Jesus Christ said Monday that He is "definitely on track" to achieve peak fitness condition for the Second Coming.

"If every eye is going to see Me, and all the tribes of earth are going to wail on account of Me, I think I owe it to them and to Myself to be in the best shape of My life," Christ said. "Right now I'm up to 35 minutes at seven [miles per hour] on the treadmill and benching about 165 [pounds]."

"I'm really starting to feel like I'll have the strength and endurance to move every mountain and island from its place," Christ added.

Since His birthday last Dec. 25, Christ has committed Himself to a demanding daily regimen of exercise and prophecy fulfillment. Each of His workouts, Christ said, starts with an hour of cardio, after which He focuses on two muscle groups, replacing conventional free weights with the Rod of Iron with which He intends to rule all nations.

On Mondays, Christ works His chest and biceps and completes three sets of 10 transfigurations. On Tuesdays, He switches to triceps and abdominals, and passes as many sets of Last Judgments as He can in a minute. Wednesdays are devoted to the back and legs, and Thursdays and Fridays are for core and flexibility.


More HERE

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A little pre-Easter humor.


capt

capt said...

Holy Moses, I have been deceived


[…]

1) The intellectually discredited purveyor of racist pseudoscience Charles Murray arguing what everyone's Bubbe and Zeida already knew: We Jews are smarter than everyone else. Geniuses, even. (And if you don't want my version, which I can't find online anyway, try Dean Lemann's takedown.)

2) The McCarthyite historian Arthur Herman, whose love letter/biography of Tail Gunner Joe, while consistent with Ann Coulter's own esteemed scholarship on the joys of McCarthyism, is not even embraced by the most right-wing of historians, attempting to blame the home front for Bush's catastrophe in Iraq, here.

3) And I see last month it published Amir Taheri, here, who is the guy who made up that false report about Iranian Jews being forced to wear yellow stars.

I don't feel like going into all the arguments these articles imply and the terrible things they imply about a group of Jewish propagandists-posing-as-intellectuals, but given the fact that for literally decades, Commentary was probably the single best magazine in America -- I read every issue of every good magazine from the 1945-50 period for what was going to be a doctoral thesis, and it certainly was then -- it's beyond sad. More significantly, however, isn't this just the kind of thing anti-Semites accuse Jews of saying and doing? If I were the kind of person to attribute the actions of a few to an entire ethnic group -- and were not a member of that group myself -- I swear, this kind of thing would get me thinking unkosher thoughts about the people that the racist Murray insists are God's Chosen People. Maybe someone should call Abe Foxman. ... Oh, wait ...


More HERE

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The clip does not do justice to the whole article.

capt

capt said...

Three Faiths Forum Founder Shortlisted for Award



Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, will today (Wednesday) praise the contributions made by British Muslims to the creation of a more just society.

"Like all great faiths, Islam urges its followers to create a more just society, and very generously British Muslims are playing their part by giving to good causes", Benn will tell the seventh annual The Muslim News Awards for Excellence in London.

"The Muslim News Awards for Excellence celebrate the hard work and dedication of all those who are doing something practical to improve the lives of people in their community", he will say.

He will praise British Muslims for being "very generous" for donating to special causes.

"The UK is doing the same through its rising aid budget, as we help poor communities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in other countries around the world to be able to build a better life."

The awards are designed to celebrate the achievements of both Muslims and non-Muslims in the British society.

Ahmed J Versi, Editor of The Muslim News, and organiser of the Awards, will tell guests that the event would accentuate "noteworthy achievement in the face of negative stereotyping."

The shortlisted nominees include:

* Halima Cassell, nominated for excellence in the arts. "Her art fuses her Asian roots with a fascination for African pattern work and a passion for architectural geometry.

* Sir Sigmund Sternberg, for championing a Muslim cause. "He founded the Three Faiths Forum, which has achieved enormous success in promoting respect, cooperation and friendship between Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities across the UK."

Others include Isola Akay for the sports award, Emdad Rahman good citizenship award, Pari Rashid for community development award, Dr Naveed Zaidi, for engineering, science and technology, Zubeida Malik, reporter for Radio 4's Today programme for the media award, and Tariq Ramadan for his contribution to Islamic thought.

More HERE

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More of this and less war.



capt