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slvemike4u -> RE: Another Romney gaff ? (10/5/2012 7:57:04 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
hehehe
As it happens, there is a historical example of improper political pressure on the BLS by a U.S. president: Republican Richard M. Nixon.
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According to journalistic accounts and documents, the task fell to Nixon aide Fred Malek, who first counted high-ranking Democrats at BLS using voter registration lists and then identified employees with “Jewish-sounding” names. He reported the resulting statistics to Nixon in a 1971 letter that became known as the “Jew-counting” memo, identifying 25 Democrats and 13 employees who “fit the other demographic criterion that was discussed.”
There is continued disagreement on how many targeted employees were demoted and Malek’s precise role in the affair. In 1988, Woodward and Post reporter Walter Pincus reported that two Jewish officials had been removed from their posts and shuffled off to less-important jobs at Labor during the episode. Malek — who quit his new post at the Republican National Committee on the day The Post’s story appeared — expressed regret for conducting a tally of Jews but denied a role in any demotions.
In 2007, Timothy Noah of Slate publicized a previously unreleased 1971 memo from Malek suggesting he was much more closely involved in a BLS purge then he had claimed, outlining a reorganization that resulted in the demotions of at least four high-ranking Jewish employees.The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum has also posted some, but not all, documents related to the affair on its Web site.
Nixon’s machinations at BLS caused an uproar at the time – though the anti-Jewish motive was still unknown — and led to added security measures ensuring that statistical analysis was clearly walled off from politics, according to a BLS history published in 1985. Current security policies include heavy data encryption, daily confidentiality agreements and an eight-day security lockdown for economists in advance of each monthly report.
Malek has remained a prominent adviser to Republicans from George H.W. Bush to Sarah Palin, and is co-founder with former senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) of the American Action Network conservative group. He is now a top fundraiser for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/10/05/there-was-one-president-who-tried-to-manipulate-bls/?tid=pm_politics_pop
But,but,but.......I thought this was all out of the Saul Alinsky handbook,how did Tricky Dick latch on to this ?
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