Counting Jews

Hey, let's give this guy a baseball team!

Under questioning by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) during the second day of hearings, Malek admitted that a memo written by him did suggest that people who were not Nixon's supporters be punished in some way. "Unethical, immoral and improper" was the way Levin described Malek's role, adding that Malek had "spearheaded a calculated, systematic effort to sell government favors to the highest bidder in the Nixon reelection campaign and to punish low bidders or the nonbidders." Which may explain why Malek's bid for the postal job died in committee. If only the responsiveness program had been his sole bad deed.

The Post reported that in 1971 Malek had ordered the FBI to conduct an investigation of then-veteran CBS correspondent and Nixon critic Daniel Schorr.

It was also in 1971, The Post reported, that Malek was given a patently anti-Semitic order from a paranoid Richard Nixon to count the Jews in high-ranking posts in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Instead of refusing, Malek set about compiling a list of 13 of 35 top BLS employees who, he believed, were Jewish. Less than two months later, two senior BLS officials who were Jewish were moved out of their jobs to less visible posts. Malek acknowledges carrying out the disgusting hunt for Jews, but he denies having anything to do with the transfers.

Disclosure of his role in counting Jews cost him his job as deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1988, just as the responsiveness program had wrecked his postal nomination six years earlier.

All that is now considered ancient history. Malek, his friends and supporters vigorously maintain, has atoned for his actions. Now more than ever, he eschews anti-Semitism and adores good government.

Malek was, of course, a co-owner of the brilliantly run Texas Rangers, of which George W. Bush was also co-owner. I guess that, along with the fact that in the current atmosphere of Washington Malek's role as "hatchet man" for Richard M. Nixon is really no big deal and not all that unusual, makes him the perfect choice to be the new owner of the Washington Abramoffs...er...Nationals.

Via Slate's Tim Noah.