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   Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
 The federal government is supposed to issue new rules about debt levels for students in for-profit colleges. In the meantime, the states are working on their own regulations.
 Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
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June 4, 2010
WHY MALEK MATTERS.... This week's revelations about Fred Malek's odious work in the Nixon White House strike some as irrelevant. As I was reminded many times yesterday, his sins were, after all, nearly four decades ago. But there's more to it than that. If you're just joining us, Malek played the role of "Jew counter" for Nixon, identifying those he labeled "ethnics" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where Nixon believed a Jewish "cabal" had taken over. Malek was responsible for identifying Jewish BLS employees, many of whom were later fired. The revelations later forced him to resign from a leadership role on the Republican National Committee. So, why should anyone still care? Dave Weigel explains:
And "leader" strikes me as a key word here. It's not as if Malek was just writing some fat checks to far-right candidates, and Democrats were trying to generate a controversy. His current role is far more significant. He was recently named to an important Virginia budget panel, appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R); he was a campaign finance chair for John McCain's presidential campaign; he's a prominent advisor to former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin (R); and he's been tapped to head up the American Action Network, a Rove-backed campaign operation to direct right-wing campaign funds into electing Republicans. Like it or not, Malek -- and his scandalous past -- matter. —Steve Benen 2:15 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (13)
Comments
Some people said Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn's past mattered too.. Posted by: Sean Scallon on June 4, 2010 at 2:19 PM | PERMALINKLet's not forget that Malek was appointed by Bob McDonnell, a far-right Republican and protege of Xtian theocrat Pat Robertson. Was Malek was appointed to the budge panel to make sure that Virginia state funds go to "real" Americans instead of to Jews and other non-Xtians.
Sorry,you are wrong. I refuse to believe that people can't be rehabiliated or atone for past sins. It was nearly 40 years ago. Time to move on. Posted by: aline on June 4, 2010 at 2:38 PM | PERMALINKScumbag Republicans in positions of influence? Hardly news. Bush admits to torture on national television with no fear of retribution while his brain has a paying gig on a national television network and I'm supposed to care about something that happened in the Nixon administration? Posted by: inkadu on June 4, 2010 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINKMcDonnell Malek hardly holds a candle to these monsters. He's just a little lizard working for dragon people... Posted by: neill on June 4, 2010 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINKI, for one, was outraged when Obama nominated Bill Ayers for the Supreme Court and appointed Bernadette Dohrn as Secretary of Defense Posted by: Paul Gottlieb on June 4, 2010 at 3:00 PM | PERMALINKI refuse to believe that people can't be rehabiliated or atone for past sins Oh sure, they CAN be, but they must actually, you know, atone. Malek has never done anything of the kind. Posted by: LittlePig on June 4, 2010 at 3:37 PM | PERMALINKLittlePig, you know things just don't work that way for Republicans. Robert Byrd's position in the KKK still taints the entire Democratic Party with racism 45 years later even though he specifically recanted, rejected and appologized for his former beliefs and spent the last 25+ years of his career working FOR racial justice and equality. But all any Republican needs to do is say they are sorry that "mistakes were made" and all is forgiven. Posted by: tanstaafl on June 4, 2010 at 4:48 PM | PERMALINKThe republican party is a cancer in the bloodstream of this nation. "But take heart, democratic do-gooders. There are points to be scored if this pustule of a man can be popped for a second time in 22 years". Your heart is in the right place. But sometimes you sound like a young David Broder. Posted by: JL on June 4, 2010 at 4:57 PM | PERMALINKMore about American Action Network and American Crossroads can be found here: Fred Malek...meet Monica Goodling. And I still wonder how many other "Monica Goodlings" were operating at all the other federal agencies besides the DOJ? For instance, at the Department of the Interior and MMS, perhaps? Or at DHS and FEMA? The anti-American cancer of the Bush/Cheney years goes very, very deep, IMHO, and the current administration is still having to deal with having so many hardcore, right-wing, Hatch Act-violating Republican hirees still working at so many critical agencies. Except I have no sympathy for President Obama (and definitely not Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod). If President Obama, once elected and in office, had launched full-scale investigations and started prosecutions into all the crimes committed by Republicans during the Bush/Cheney years, he would have 1) being following the Constitution and rule of law, and 2) been able to possibly identify and weed out all the anti-government, anti-his-administration, holdover Republicans in the federal government...and maybe the BP oil spill might have been stopped ahead of time due to tightened safety oversight. But President Obama (and his crack team of advisers) decided to let bygones be bygones, thus allowing all the Republican criminals to get Stay Out Of Jail free cards, letting them continue with their nefarious plans both inside and outside of government, instead of serving time behind bars. Incredible. Posted by: The Oracle on June 5, 2010 at 3:04 AM | PERMALINKAnd if President Obama had done that, maybe it would have worked out for the best in the long run. However, we almost certainly would not have had the American Recovery Act, the Affordable Care Act and a half-dozen other measures. While it may seem like the Republicans have been as obstructionist as they could possibly be, if Obama had tried to launch widespread investigations and prosecutions immediately after taking office in the middle of multiple crises, the country would be suffering from total gridlock right now. If that lead to the perception that President Obama and the Democrats cared more about "getting back" at the Republicans, then the electoral situation would be dire and as soon as the Republicans got back into power, they would go overturning any little bit of progress that might have been made in the interim. IS this scenario overly alarmist? Perhaps. Do you really want to have taken that chance? Posted by: tanstaafl on June 5, 2010 at 7:29 AM | PERMALINK
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