From: heller@cabot.balltown.cma.COM (Aaron J. Heller)
Subject: Frederic Malek (was Re: Judaism at Democratic ...)
Organization: Aule-Tek, Inc., Troy, NY
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 05:57:22 GMT

In article <1992Jul18.062137.14019@midway.uchicago.edu> thf2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>Personally, I'm curious why the media's ignoring the fact that Fred
>Malek is Bush's campaign chief, given that Malek had to resign Bush's
>campaign in 1988 because he carried out a headcount of Jewish workers
>under orders from Nixon during the Nixon Administration.

In article <1992Jul21.175642.20966@cabot.balltown.cma.COM> heller@cabot.balltown.cma.COM (Aaron J. Heller) writes:
>Actually, this is a fairly tame account of what happened.  Nixon
>feared a Jewish conspiracy at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  So in
>1971, he asked Malek to prepare a list of officials at the BLS who
>were Jewish.  After Malek produced his report, two of the Jews he had
>identified were reassigned.

In article <1992Jul22.180423.28795@njitgw.njit.edu> dic5340@hertz.njit.edu (David Charlap) writes:
>"Two of the Jews...".  Out of how many?  Reassignment is common.  If
>they are the only two, I'd be suspicious.  If there were a few dozen
>or a few hundred (how big was the BLS?), then two is not significant.

In article <5664@nosc.NOSC.MIL> mgross@halibut.nosc.mil (Michelle K. Gross) writes:
>I'm going to assume that David is playing the "devil's advocate" in order
>to assess the seriousness of what Aaron reports. If what Aaron reports
>is true, then one should not use the normal standard of assessing behavior
>to evaluate Malek's alleged acts. [...] The existence of a list itself
>may give the appearance of wrong-doing, so further questions as to its use
>are--in the contexts I have seen of evaluating gov't officials behavior--
>superfluous.  Of course, one must ask on whose payroll was Malek at the
>time of compiling the reported list?

The incident is mentioned in ``The Final Days'' by Woodward and
Bernstein (page 169 in the hard cover edition).  I stopped by the
library and dug out the stories from The Washington Post and The New
York Times.  When all this came to light in 1988, Malek resigned from
the Bush campaign, but now, he is back in charge of Bush's 1992
campaign.  The amazing thing is that the press, with the exception of
David Corn (``Beltway Bandits.'' The Nation. Sept. 16, 1991, p. 291)
has completely ignored this.

Here's the first few paragraphs from the story (The Washington Post,
Sunday, Sept. 11, 1988, page 1):

    Bush Associate, Under Nixon, Surveyed Jews in BLS
    By Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward, Washington Post Staff Writers

      Frederic V. Malek, chosen recently by Republican presidential
    nominee George Bush as deputy chairman of the Republican
    National Committee, compiled figures in 1971 on the number of
    Jews among the among top officials of the Bureau of Labor
    Statistics at the direction of then-President Richard M. Nixon,
    who had ordered Malek to investigate what notes taken by White
    House aides described as a ``Jewish cabal'' at the agency.
      At the time, Malek was Nixon's White House personnel chief and
    had been assigned to evaluate the BLS staff.  On July 27, 1971,
    Malek reported to H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, Nixon's chief of staff,
    that 13 of 35 top BLS officials were Jewish in a memo that
    reporters found last week in the archives of Nixon's presidency.
      Less than two months after Malek's memo, two senior BLS
    officials who are Jewish were ousted from their posts and moved
    to less visible positions in the Labor Department agency.  They
    were Peter Henle, chief economist for BLS, and Harold Goldstein,
    the director of current employment analysis.
    [...]

The following day's New York Times reports in a front page story:

    Advisor to Bush Quits G.O.P. Post Amid Anti-Semitism Allegations
             by Maureen Dowd, Special to The New York Times

      Washington, Sept. 11 -- A high-level adviser to Vice President
    Bush resigned from a senior position at the Republican National
    Committee today after acknowledging that he had drawn up a list
    of important Jewish officials at the Bureau of labor Statistics
    at the behest of President Richard M. Nixon in 1971.
      The adviser, Frederic V. Malek, a former White House personnel
    chief, emphatically denied that he had engaged in anti-Semitic
    actions.  He said he was resigning as the party's deputy chairman 
    ``because of my belief that nothing should interfere with the
    Vice President's victory in November.''    
    [stuff about Democratic reaction deleted]
      Mr. Malek confirmed in an interview Saturday night that he had
    prepared the list after Mr. Nixon complained that a ``Jewish
    cabal'' in the bureau was trying to undermine his record on the
    economy. [...]

-- 
Aaron Heller  heller@balltown.cma.com  518/393-7379

Pictures are like blintzes -- ya gotta get 'em while they're hot. -Weegee