John McCain, doing more poorly than expected in both fund raising and the polls, is revamping his campaign. It’s bad enough that he’s running on Bush’s Iraq policy. Now he’s added one of Nixon’s anti-Semitic hatchet men. TPM’s Election Central and David Corn both report on the career of Fred Malek, who McCain chose to be campaign national finance co-chair. The press release announcing Malek’s appointment includes this information on Malek’s career:
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.
An article in The Washington Post last year provides more information on Malek:
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.
McCain is building quite a team. In addition to Malek, McCain hired Terry Nelson, who was responsible for the “bimbo” ad attacking Harold Ford in the recent Tennessee Senate race, to be campain manager. We should have known that McCain might associate with just about anyone after we saw how he hugged and kissed George Bush.
Related Story: Kerry says that McCain approached him about running as VP, but this isn’t the first time this suspicion was raised.
Barf! That picture is causing me to lose my breakfast—and so is the post.