America is special

From Paul Krugman

Its just a glancing mention in this Times piece on how Fannie Mae won friends and influenced people:

Fannies board once included Frederic V. Malek, a longtime friend of the Bush family and a former business partner of the current President Bush.

Theres a bit more to who Malek is:

He was Nixons Jew-counter: he counted Jews at the Bureau of Labor Statistics at his bosss behest you see, Nixon believed that a Jewish cabal was distorting the economic statistics to make him look bad.

He was the deputy chairman of the RNC during the elder George Bushs presidential run in 1988, but resigned when the Jew-counting story came out.

A year later, he helped the younger Bush purchase of the Texas Rangers a supreme case of crony capitalism.

And now hes John McCains finance co-chairman.

It’s hard to think of parallels in Australian politics.  In America it’s standard operating procedure – for Republicans anyway.

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JC
JC
16 years ago

From the slate link:

It is beyond dispute that Richard Nixon was an outrageous anti-Semite.

What’s outrageous is that these guys don’t need to go to these levels to denigrate Nixon as his track record speaks for itself. In other words Nixon was a rotten prez. However Slate’s dishonesty is just as bad.

Nixon said some pretty bad things about Jews at times but this hardly made him an anti-Semite. Henry Kissinger has spoken about this before and totally refuted it. I’d rely on Kissinger’s word about this than Slate or Slate’s sources.

Nixon was a paranoid fuck who thought everyone was against him. He was close to ordering a nuclear exchange as a result of a potential Soviet backed attack against Israel.

To be honest relying on a Republican party hater and disseminator like Krugman is like relying on scorpion’s word not to bite.

JC
JC
16 years ago

Who is Fred Malek:

In 1971, Richard Nixon became convinced the Bureau of Labor Statistics had come under the control of Democratic rivals and even a “Jewish cabal.” He instructed aides Charles Colson and H. R. Haldeman to identify a list of Democrats and “important Jewish officials” at the agency.[5]

Fred Malek provided the data on Democrats after a check of voter registration rolls, but balked at fulfilling the rest of Nixon’s query. “I refused four times. The fifth time he came back and gave me a direct order through Haldeman, so I gave him a number. I regret my compliance. It was a mistake.”[6] Two months after he sent the list, two of the officials on it were reassigned to “less visible jobs” within the Labor Dept.[7]

Seymour D. Reich, chairman of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations during the 1990s, said “Malek made a mistake 18 years ago when he agreed to a regrettable request by President Nixon.” But he added, Malek “has taken pains to assure the Jewish community that he realizes his error and that he i

Melak admitted he fucked up.

If he was such a Jew hater is Krugman implies Krugman may want to explain how Melak was asked to become a director of the Carlyle group headed essentially by NYC Upper East side Jewish-Americans.

Carlyle was founded in 1987 by Stephen L. Norris, and David M. Rubenstein.[2] They later hired Dan D’Aniello, William Conway and Greg Rosenbaum.[3] Rosenbaum left in 1987;[4] Norris left in 1995.[5] The three remaining founders are reported to collectively own around a 50% interest in the group’s general partnership. The California Public Employees Retirement System (or CalPERS) is the only US institution which owns a stake in the partnership, holding 5.5% of Carlyle for which it paid $175 million in 2001. In 2007, Mubadala Development, an investment vehicle for the Government of Abu Dhabi, purchased a 7.5% stake for $1.35 billion.[6]

As they wanted the firm to outlive them, Norris and Rubenstein named the firm after the Upper East Side area hotel in New York City, the Carlyle Hotel, where they first met to discuss the idea. Carlyle’s current chairman is Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM and Nabisco.

Krugman ought to spend more time trying to freshen up on his friggen economics than peddling third rate “truther” like crap like this. His hatred for the GOP is starting to become a medical issue.

Clinton made scathing comments about Italian-Americans and their associations with organized crime in a private /recorded telephone conversation when he thought Cuomo was going to enter the race in 92. It hardly made him a racist bigot. People say stupid things in private they don’t really mean.

There are better ways to attack the GOP and this gutter crap that Krugman always resorts to.

Danny
Danny
16 years ago

>> Hard to think of parallels in Australian politics…

I dunno, but I reckon the then treasurer’s hysterical reaction, indicating a hit nerve in the liberal party, in starting up BurkeGate, (which I reckon is when the electorate decided to give it up for Kev), gives a pretty strong clue as to a contender corner:

Quoting Tip on Lateline, as published on the then treasurer’s own , his own admission:

“Can I go back to last week as to how all this arose. You might recall that last week Mr Rudd went into the Parliament and said that the Government had to answer questions about its association with Ron Walker, Hugh Morgan and Robert De Crespigny over this secret nuclear company….This arose in the Parliament because Mr Rudd decided to try and make an issue of the Prime Minister and my association with Ron Walker.”

Ron also turned up earlier during the Robert Gerard affair, he of the very temporary Reserve bank board membership, due to some tax problems that, apparently, neither Ron nor Tip knew or were worried about, even though he’d for some reason declined the proffered Liberal party treasurership when Ron wanted to pass on the Chalice from The Palace, when the due diligence question just might have arisen.

He gave it to Malcolm instead.

GJ
GJ
16 years ago

JC “People say stupid things in private they don’t really mean”

That I would suggest is a rather stupid observation to make in public!!

anon
anon
16 years ago

thats disgraceful

derrida derider
derrida derider
16 years ago

JC I think Nic was focusing on the cronyism issue rather than the antisemitism issue. Rightly – it’s that ruling class cronyism, not limited to Republicans by any means, which is both a major symptom and a minor cause of the decay of the American empire.

Yes, Nixon was a paranoid who believed everybody, including “the Jews”, was out to get him. His antisemitism was just one small part of this larger paranoia, and as you point out was neither the most prominent nor the most dangerous part. But it was still antisemitism.

JC
JC
16 years ago

I take your point DD.

I find it hard to believe that Nixon despite all his faults (which were legion) was a Jew hating virulent anti-Semite. A closer description is that he was a paranoid psychotic as you also point out.

There were numerous Jews in that administration. With the cold war in full swing you could say the Sec. of State was the second most important job in the administration. Kissinger was in that job. The White House general counsel was Jewish. Casper Weinberger who started off in the Nixon Administration was Jewish. The great NYTimes (now retired) former token conservative columnist, Bill Safire was Jewish and worked for Nixon as administration.

Nixon was everything bad, but he wasn’t a raving anti-Semite.

And I’m don’t want to be placed in a position to defend the bastard because there is very little to defend when it comes to Nixon.

Krugman is now taking a swipe at McCain for hiring Malek with the accusation he’s a bad dude. I don’t like McCain I don’t think he would make a good prez and would offer the GOP even worse prospects. However I don’t think he is a bad guy and neither is Fred Malek.

Rightly – its that ruling class cronyism, not limited to Republicans by any means, which is both a major symptom and a minor cause of the decay of the American empire.

Perhaps for a while it seemed like that. But it looks like with the candidates in this election Americans just took a new direction.

Liam
Liam
16 years ago

Its hard to think of parallels in Australian politics.

In terms of shonkiness, if not scale or antisemitism, Thomas Ley was worse by far. His object of hatred was Catholics, though, not Jews.

JC
JC
16 years ago

Liam,

you read the Leys obit/ Bio, right? It starts off:

LEY, THOMAS JOHN (1880-1947), politician and murderer, was born on 28 October 1880 at Bath, Somerset, England, son of Henry Ley, butler, and his wife Elizabeth, n

Liam
Liam
16 years ago

Well yes, Joe, indeed.
Nabakov, where are you? I think Ley needs a comic light opera written about him. In the style of Carry On Richard III by Gershwin, with jazz dance.

TerjeP
TerjeP
16 years ago

I really dislike Nixon. I also really dislike Krugman. On balance Nixon is worse but only because somebody let him near the levers of power.

Patrick
Patrick
16 years ago

In America its standard operating procedure – for Republicans anyway.

Nick is parodying Krugman.

It is quite clever actually – what a preposterous statement from (a fan of) the party that gave us the Kennedys, the Daleys, the Clintons and the Gores and even ran John Kerry (famous for: marrying well) as a Presidential candidate.

FDB
FDB
16 years ago

What is it with you and homicidal pollies, Liam?

Bet you’re pissed Latho didn’t get up eh? Would have been none of this softly softly cover-your-tracks for him – a lunge across the House and the crunch of a neck.

Liam
Liam
16 years ago

Nah, FDB. Latho had nothing on Aaron Burr.

Patrick
Patrick
16 years ago

Who said I was a fan of the Democrats?

Not me – but the guy you so cleverly parodied certainly is. You personally I would think a Nader voter :)

Marde
16 years ago

Well, we have Bob Barr now who might be able to steer Obama into the White House.
;-)