John McCain and the Jew-Counter

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'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

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, 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 been testified straightforwardly about this program during a confimation hearing. 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.

******

DON"T FORGET ABOUT HUBRIS: THE INSIDE STORY OF SPIN, SCANDAL, AND THE SELLING OF THE IRAQ WAR, the best-selling book by David Corn and Michael Isikoff. Click here for information on the book. The New York Times calls Hubris "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" and "fascinating reading." The Washington Post says, "There have been many books about the Iraq war....This one, however, pulls together with unusually shocking clarity the multiple failures of process and statecraft." Tom Brokaw notes Hubris "is a bold and provocative book that will quickly become an explosive part of the national debate on how we got involved in Iraq." Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor of The New Yorker notes, "The selling of Bush's Iraq debacle is one of the most important--and appalling--stories of the last half-century, and Michael Isikoff and David Corn have reported the hell out of it." For highlights from Hubris, click here.

Comments (34)

1. Sorry, John.

   Sadly, the whole world has watched you trade your honor for political expedience.

   It's time to pack it in.

   Posted by drhammer at 04/03/2007 @ 12:13pm

2. The smell of a lost cause is already around McCain.

   The "Maverick" lovers have been portrayed. (I remember reading blogs 3-4-5 years ago from "diehard Democrat, but I'd vote for McCain" types).

   The fiscal cons think he's more pro-tax hike than pro-spending cut...and the social cons still don't trust him...or LIKE him for McCain-Feingold and his tendency

   Posted by Mask at 04/03/2007 @ 12:23pm

3. Posted by MASK 04/03/2007 @ 12:23pm

   correction "portrayed" should be "betrayed"

   Posted by Mask at 04/03/2007 @ 12:23pm

4. Real investigative journalists need to peer squarely up the sphincter of anyone appointed to any position by BushCo, or any other wingnut wanna-be's. These assclowns always stack the roster with prior offenders, banking on the notion that most of us have little or no memory, and the rest who do just can't keep up with the torrent of cronies and criminals.

   Their arrogance broadcasts a built-in challenge to find the truth.

   Posted by drhammer at 04/03/2007 @ 12:28pm

5. McCain is finished. Last night, Michael Ware was whacking McCain's ass again. Said McCain should have visited the morgue instead of the bazaar photo op to gauge the success of the surge. What a pathetic story.

   Posted by OneVote at 04/03/2007 @ 12:45pm

6. i think you are right on the money. mccain blew his chances long ago. smelling ripe now...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/03/2007 @ 12:46pm

7. Why am I not surprised? McCain thinks the "surge" will work. Apparently he's applied that same brilliance to his hiring decisions.

   Posted by MyParadigm at 04/03/2007 @ 12:46pm

8. Two words:

   "Too old"

   Posted by freedomplease at 04/03/2007 @ 1:07pm

9. Back in the days of Nixon our government compiled lists of Jews in government. That was repugnant enough but now they compile lists of not just Arabs but anyone who has a name that is even remotely Arabic. They don't even have to work for the government. Apparently, having an Arabic name while simultaneously breathing is a good enough reason for big brother to get involved:

   Tom Kubbany is neither a terrorist nor a drug trafficker, has average credit and has owned homes in the past, so the Northern California mental-health worker was baffled when his mortgage broker said lenders were not interested in him. Reviewing his loan file, he discovered something shocking. At the top of his credit report was an OFAC alert provided by credit bureau TransUnion that showed that his middle name, Hassan, is an alias for Ali Saddam Hussein, purportedly a "son of Saddam Hussein."

   The record is not clear on whether Ali Saddam Hussein was a Hussein offspring, but the OFAC list stated he was born in 1980 or 1983. Kubbany was born in Detroit in 1949.

   Under OFAC guidance, the date discrepancy signals a false match. Still, Kubbany said, the broker decided not to proceed. "She just talked with a bunch of lenders over the phone and they said, 'No,' " he said. "So we said, 'The heck with it. We'll just go somewhere else.' "

   Kubbany and his wife are applying for another loan, though he worries that the stigma lingers. "There's a dark cloud over us," he said. "We will never know if we had qualified for the mortgage last summer, then we might have been in a house now."

   Saad Ali Muhammad is an African American who was born in Chicago and converted to Islam in 1980. When he tried to buy a used car from a Chevrolet dealership three years ago, a salesman ran his credit report and at the top saw a reference to "OFAC search," followed by the names of terrorists including Osama bin Laden. The only apparent connection was the name Muhammad. The credit report, also by TransUnion, did not explain what OFAC was or what the credit report user should do with the information. Muhammad wrote to TransUnion and filed a complaint with a state human rights agency, but the alert remains on his report, Sinnar said.

   http://www.tinyurl.com/2r6kev

   Posted by fromredbird at 04/03/2007 @ 2:24pm

10. David uncharacteristically missed one of Fred Malek's biggest scandals: the Connecticut bribery scandal. Malek and Thayer Capital were punished by the SEC here:

    http://sec.gov/litigation/admin/33-8457.htm

    You don't have to go back to the 70's to see that Malek sees government as just another source of personal financial gain...

    Posted by sjduskin at 04/03/2007 @ 3:04pm

11. In six years of governing, Bush has seen only two bills he would veto; in both cases - stem cell research and military authorization for Iraq - a majority in Congress and a majority of American people favor the bill.

    Is George Bush out step with the American people or is he just exercising his electoral mandate of 49% and 51.3% in 2000 and 2004?

    Mr Bush's "my way or the highway" act is getting old. He has had his way, almost exclusively, since 9/11. Bush's 'my way' includes attacking Iraq to disarm them of nuclear weapons, NSA warrant less wiretapping of US citizens, the suspension of habeas corpus, Gitmo and torture, Abu Grhaib and torture, tax cuts for the extremely rich, Donald Rumsfeld, Abu Gonzalez and Huckuva job Brownie. Mr Bush's dance with Congress over the withdrawal clause by August 2008 is more 'my way or the highway.' We're done with the incompetent cowboy. Calm down Mr. President and take a deep breath. There is a new Congress in town.

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/03/2007 @ 6:31pm

12. Substitute Bush 43 for Nixon and Libruls for Jews and Corn for Woodward and you've got a contemporary story anybody would believe:

    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.

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/03/2007 @ 6:48pm

13. These days, he [Malek] chairs two private equity firms and sits on the advisory committee for the Scooter Libby defense fund.

    How many advisors does it take to tell Scooter, "Keep your mouth shut and we'll take care of your family. Open it and you'll find out how it feels to be a traitor, and it won't be pretty."

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/03/2007 @ 6:57pm

14. Mr. Corn stated: "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....Malek denied any role and said Nixon's notions of a "Jewish cabal" were "ridiculous" and "nonsense.".....he went on the board of the American-Israel Friendship Society,...

    Counting Jews was not Malek's only shady enterprise.

    Is something missing from David's text? The title of this piece is sinister & sensationalistic....yet, reading the details, there is no `evidence' for Mr. Corn to CONVICT Mr. Malek of conducting "shady" Jew counting!!! What is even more puzzling is Mr. Malek's being a board member of AIFS.....doesn't compute that Malek holds malice toweard Jews!

    I've read Mr. Corn for a year & half now.....this commentary struck me as odd, a hatchet job? Jumping on McCain via Malek? Cause everybody else is this week? Malek is the wrong man for the H-job....besides, he seems to be a freind of Jews!

    Not one of Mr. Corn's better grenades!!!

    Posted by Happy at 04/03/2007 @ 11:22pm

15. I hope you don't mind an off-topic comment, but this is important: There is a great post on The Carpetbagger Report from a few days ago about the mainstream media's (specifically Time magazine's) ignoring the prosecutor purge scandal.

    http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10367.html

    What explains the failure of the mainstream media to cover the purge scandal for so long, and so many other scandals? Do you think somebody just set up newspaper editors to cheat on their wives, and threatened to tell if the editors wouldn't play ball when they come back some day and ask for something?

    It wouldn't be that hard to do, when you think about it. People wouldn't talk about it.

    Posted by Swan at 04/04/2007 @ 5:31pm

16. Speaking of prosecutors, today's WSJ Editorial......Is there any doubt left that Fitz was after the media and Libby was his `fall guy'? What a laugh, the MSM's confidential source protection gets pierced while all along, they egged Fitz on thinking he was after Rove & Co. Fitz, you are THE MAN!

    Fitzgerald's Cover-Up

    It's time to hold the special prosecutor accountable. Wednesday, April 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

    For a prosecutor who claims to be a truth-seeker, Patrick Fitzgerald sure can be secretive. Even now that the Scooter Libby trial is over and his "leak" investigation is all but closed, the unaccountable special counsel wants to keep his arguments for creating a Constitutional showdown over reporters and their sources under lock and key.

    Mr. Fitzgerald is fighting release of the affidavits he filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to justify compelling two reporters to testify about their conversations with Mr. Libby, and to throw one of them in jail for 85 days until she did so. Also under court seal are eight pages of a redacted 2005 D.C. Circuit opinion by Judge David Tatel that explained the court's decision to support Mr. Fitzgerald's pursuit of the reporters.

    In January, Dow Jones--which publishes this newspaper--and the Associated Press requested that the D.C. Circuit release this material now that the case is wrapped up. By demanding that the reporters betray their sources, Mr. Fitzgerald caused a legal collision that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The public, the press and other prosecutors all have what the Dow Jones-AP motion calls "an undeniable and overwhelming public interest" in knowing the arguments and information that Mr. Fitzgerald made to the court.

    His demand and the D.C. Circuit ruling set a precedent that may well encourage other prosecutors to force journalists to betray their sources too. His effort also appeared, at least to us, to violate long-standing Justice Department guidelines concerning such pursuit of journalists. His pursuit is all the more puzzling in retrospect because we now know that Mr. Fitzgerald already knew--at the time he was demanding that the reporters betray their sources--that the real leaker was Richard Armitage, not Mr. Libby.

    The two reporters he subpoenaed and their lawyers did not know this at the time, however, and if they had it might have changed their arguments or decisions. At a minimum, prosecutors and reporters deserve to know what evidence the D.C. Circuit found so compelling so we can all avoid such future collisions. Congress also has an interest now that it is contemplating a "shield law" to protect media sources.

    In his reply to the DJ-AP motion, Mr. Fitzgerald tries to hide behind rule 6(e) of grand jury secrecy. He claims the integrity of grand juries will be compromised by the release. But much of the material was already disclosed during the Libby trial, if not leaked earlier. And the far larger risk to grand jury integrity would be if Mr. Fitzgerald misled the courts about what he knew and when he knew it in order to coerce the two reporters to testify.

    As a "special counsel" appointed by his good friend and former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, Mr. Fitzgerald operated essentially without Justice Department supervision. He once said himself that he "serve[d] as the functional equivalent of the Attorney General." Now he wants the D.C. Circuit to give him a free pass as well.

    The Dow Jones-AP request is about holding Mr. Fitzgerald accountable for what he told the courts. If it is the same as what he told the public, then the prosecutor should have nothing to fear from the release of the affidavits or Judge Tatel's redacted opinion.

    Posted by Happy at 04/04/2007 @ 6:42pm

17. Posted by HAPPY 04/04/2007 @ 6:42pm

    Is there anyone besides a handfull of Neo-Con Dead-Enders who CARES what the WSJ publishes?

    Posted by Dr Decibels at 04/04/2007 @ 7:05pm

18. Or better yet, BELIEVES anything the WSJ publishes?

    Posted by Dr Decibels at 04/04/2007 @ 7:06pm

19. Dr. LOUD,

    New here huh? For die hard Capitalists, the WSJ is the bible...thought I teach you a thing or two!

    Go check the circulation figures and see how many `handfull'....More handfulls than the NYT or WaPo!

    Sincerely,

    Happy Capitalist

    Posted by Happy at 04/04/2007 @ 8:31pm

20. Happy the capitalist has no problem violating the WSJ's copyright by posting the op-ed at the Nation, Select All, ctrl-c, Paste. He has no problem embarrasing himself with this transparent blather:

    Speaking of prosecutors, today's WSJ Editorial......Is there any doubt left that Fitz was after the media and Libby was his `fall guy'? What a laugh, the MSM's confidential source protection gets pierced while all along, they egged Fitz on thinking he was after Rove & Co. Fitz, you are THE MAN!

    Try to make sense of it.

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/05/2007 @ 03:08am

21. Convicted felon Jack Abramoff's secretary Susan Ralston... Sorry, make that Karl Rove's secretary Susan Ralston will be testifying starting 10 AM THU 4/5 to the House Government Oversight Committee. The scuttlebutt is that Rove's work with Abramoff will be the smoking gun that sinks the soulless runt.

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/05/2007 @ 03:16am

22. Sadly, the Times of London reported on Wednesday that 21 people from the market where McCain staged his photo-op were abducted by insurgents and executed. The story has not been completely fleshed out, and it is not known whether they were abducted from the market directly, or were just known to have been at the market during the photo-op. Additionally, it is not known if they were targeted because they were seen dealing with McCain in the video. Nonetheless, a very graphic point has been made.

    We have all watched as a once honorable John McCain has very publicly gone from war hero, to reform advocate, to campaign whore, to fool, to VERY DANGEROUS FOOL.

    I am sickened...

    Posted by drhammer at 04/05/2007 @ 08:26am

23. Sadly, the Times of London reported on Wednesday that 21 people from the market where McCain staged his photo-op were abducted by insurgents and executed. The story has not been completely fleshed out, and it is not known whether they were abducted from the market directly, or were just known to have been at the market during the photo-op. Additionally, it is not known if they were targeted because they were seen dealing with McCain in the video. Nonetheless, a very graphic point has been made.

    We have all watched as a once honorable John McCain has very publicly gone from war hero, to reform advocate, to campaign whore, to fool, to VERY DANGEROUS FOOL.

    I am sickened...

    Posted by drhammer at 04/05/2007 @ 08:27am

24. Dr. LOUD,

    New here huh? For die hard Capitalists, the WSJ is the bible...thought I teach you a thing or two!

    Go check the circulation figures and see how many `handfull'....More handfulls than the NYT or WaPo!

    Sincerely,

    Happy Capitalist

    Posted by HAPPY 04/04/2007 @ 8:31pm

    99.9% of the people who read the WSJ read it for everything but the editorial page.

    Posted by fromredbird at 04/05/2007 @ 10:01pm

25. Is something missing from David's text? The title of this piece is sinister & sensationalistic....yet, reading the details, there is no `evidence' for Mr. Corn to CONVICT Mr. Malek of conducting "shady" Jew counting!!! What is even more puzzling is Mr. Malek's being a board member of AIFS.....doesn't compute that Malek holds malice toweard Jews!

    I've read Mr. Corn for a year & half now.....this commentary struck me as odd, a hatchet job? Jumping on McCain via Malek? Cause everybody else is this week? Malek is the wrong man for the H-job....besides, he seems to be a freind of Jews!

    Not one of Mr. Corn's better grenades!!!

    Posted by HAPPY 04/03/2007 @ 11:22pm

    The only question is, "Did Malek compile lists of employees in a government bureau by ethnicity on the assumption that this qualified them as political opponents." The answer is, "yes", and it is un-American if not illegal.

    Posted by fromredbird at 04/05/2007 @ 10:06pm

26. 99.9% of the people who read the WSJ read it for everything but the editorial page.

    Posted by FROMREDBIRD 04/05/2007 @ 10:01pm | ignore this person

    Really? Care to source your stat? WSJ is a capitalist rag, No? Why would they waste paper/print/resources for that 0.1%? Why is the WSJ cited as often, if not more (my opinion only) than NYT, WaPo, Time. etc......soryy for nailing you!

    Also, Mr./Mrs./Ms. RED, being asked by a boss to count is no crime, nor un-American, nor un-Globalist! Ever heard of Census, employee breakdown by ethnicity, religion, etc..... In Universities, counts of the predominance of liberal faculty after it became most apparent of their overwhelming Left bais....This is the world we live in....some call it politcial correctness....got to count everything, you know!

    Posted by Happy at 04/06/2007 @ 12:47am

27. Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.

    The report's release came on the same day that Vice President Cheney, appearing on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, repeated his allegation that al-Qaeda was operating inside Iraq "before we ever launched" the war, under the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist killed last June.

    "This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney told Limbaugh's listeners about Zarqawi, who he said had "led the charge for Iraq." Cheney cited the alleged history to illustrate his argument that withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq would "play right into the hands of al-Qaeda."

    Zarqawi, whom Cheney depicted yesterday as an agent of al-Qaeda in Iraq before the war, was not then an al-Qaeda member but was the leader of an unaffiliated terrorist group who occasionally associated with al-Qaeda adherents, according to several intelligence analysts. He publicly allied himself with al-Qaeda in early 2004, after the U.S. invasion.

    Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted

    Pentagon Report Says Contacts Were Limited

    By R. Jeffrey Smith

    Washington Post Staff Writer

    Friday, April 6, 2007; A01

    LINK [tinyurl.com]

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/06/2007 @ 10:35am

28. Clueless Happy thinks people buy the WSJ to read the editorials...

    And that there's no difference between counting Jews working in a government agency to keep statistics and counting Jews to put their names on the President's political hit list. Targeting political opponents on the basis of their ethnic background ought to be as repulsive to most Americans as it is illegal. The illegality comes when these 'jews' are deprived of their livelihoods because of their ethnic background or religious beliefs or both.

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/06/2007 @ 11:02am

29. A Poke in the Eye at Recess

    By Dan Froomkin

    Special to washingtonpost.com Thursday, April 5, 2007; 3:58 PM

    When the White House suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew Sam Fox's nomination to be ambassador to Belgium last week -- just minutes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was set to vote against him -- it was seen as a sign that President Bush might be reconciling himself to the realities of sharing power with a Democratic-controlled Congress.

    Democrats, who had denounced Fox for his 2004 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, applauded the White House for its graceful concession.

    But it turns out that conceding gracefully was the last thing President Bush had in mind. He was just sick of going through the motions.

    Yesterday, with the Senate on a one-week Easter break, the White House bypassed those balky Democrats and granted Fox a "recess appointment." While depriving the multi-millionaire St. Louis businessman of a government salary, the appointment nevertheless lets him hold office for the rest of Bush's term.

    The Fox appointment was one of three controversial recess appointments quietly announced by the White House yesterday.

    LINK [tinyurl.com]

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/06/2007 @ 11:41am

30. "President Bush on Wednesday appointed as his top regulatory official a conservative academic who has written that markets do a better job of regulating than the government does and that it is more cost-effective for people who are sensitive to pollution to stay indoors on smoggy days than for government to order polluters to clean up their emissions.

    "As director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Susan E. Dudley will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies. . . .

    "Bush has used recess appointments more than 100 times, often to get around a recalcitrant Senate. In perhaps his most controversial such appointment, he named John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations in 2005. Bolton served until late last year, when the 109th Congress adjourned and he was constitutionally required to step down.

    "Although Dudley's new job is more obscure than those to which Biggs and Fox were appointed, it also is potentially the most powerful. The budget office's regulatory shop acts as a funnel for all regulations emanating throughout the government."

    Joel Havemann, LAT, LINK [tinyurl.com]

    Posted by NeilSagan at 04/06/2007 @ 11:49am

31. Posted by SJDUSKIN 04/03/2007 @ 3:04pm

    Fascinating. It just never ends.

    Posted by crabwalk at 04/06/2007 @ 9:55pm

32. It is very clear that John is a representaive for the republican/evangelical/jewish cabel that seeks to keep us trapped in conflict with the muslim world. He seems to only want solutions that require violence. It is time for us to use soft power and skillful statesmanship, a tactic republican administrations are historically bad at.

    Posted by Arkon at 04/07/2007 @ 10:39pm

33. How McCain squares The choice of Malek with his recent republican positions is unclear. What is the message he sends to the jewish wing of the party?

    Posted by Arkon at 04/07/2007 @ 10:47pm

34. I happen to like the guy hes genuine and hes more presidential than jrudi or brigham romney but i cant help but wonder as a self-hating jew how old is this guy; the jew counter he must be 100

    Posted by oy vey at 04/09/2007 @ 12:27pm