Malek

During the summer of 1971 the United States was in a recession. Richard Nixon, like any president in that situation, was trying to control public perception of the nation's economic problems. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is the federal agency that tracks unemployment, released disheartening numbers. Nixon administration officials called the numbers "heartening." At the same time, Harold Goldstein, who was at the time the director of current employment analysis at the bureau, told the press that the numbers were "mixed."

Nixon thought that a "Jewish cabal" in the Bureau of Labor Statistics was trying to undermine his administration. He ordered his director of personnel, a former executive with Marriott Corp. and Northwest Airlines named Fred Malek, to find out how many of the top officials of the bureau were Jewish. The personnel chief followed orders. He prepared a memo dated July 27, 1971, that informed the President that 13 of the top 35 people in the bureau were Jewish, and named them. By the end of 1971 Goldstein and another official on the list were transferred out of the bureau.

This purge did not come to light for 17 years. In the fall of 1988 The Washington Post discovered Malek's memorandum in the Nixon archives. Fred Malek had just completed running the New Orleans Republican convention for Bush, and was then deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. The day after the Post article appeared, Malek resigned. Mike Dukakis, the Goldilocks of high-minded campaigning, never raised the issue, and it was quickly forgotten.

Fred Malek has just been named George Bush's 1992 campaign manager.