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CREEPer to Elizabeth Edwards: Cut the Cancer Talk

by: Dean Barker

Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 20:13:55 PM EDT
Recently, cancer survivor Elizabeth Edwards made a brilliant observation about cancer survivor John McCain: that neither of them would be covered under McMaverick's do-nothing health care plan.

Well, according to McCain's National Finance Co-Chair Fred Malek, cancer patient Elizabeth Edwards shouldn't be talking about cancer in a political context:

Finding a cure for cancer is a vitally important mission for this country. Supporting that mission should unite everyone - and should be off-limits from the political and partisan battlefield.

...I just hope that it doesn't become a common occurrence on the campaign trail. The cancer conversation is best left to the experts, researchers, and doctors.

Thanks for your ad hominem  distraction from Edwards' point about pre-existing conditions concern, Mr. Malek.  I'll make sure to tell all the cancer survivors in my life to keep their cancer talk to themselves during this election season.

So, who is Fred Malek, anyhow?

On a Friday in August 1959, five men in their twenties were arrested about 2 a.m. and held in the county jail all day after sheriff's deputies found a blood-spattered, unoccupied car about 1:15 a.m. at the entrance to Vicary's Park on Kickapoo Creek Road near Peoria, Ill.

...After checking the blood-spattered pants of one of the men at the state crime laboratory in Springfield, it was determined that the stains were animal and not human blood. Backes said the men then changed their story and said they had "caught a dog and were barbecuing it."

Police then found the skinned animal on a spit in the park. The insides of the dog had been removed, and a bottle of liquor was found on a nearby park table. Backes said the men told him they had been drinking earlier in the evening at a West Bluff tavern.

One of the men arrested in the incident, in which a dog was killed, skinned, gutted and barbecued on a spit, was Frederick V. Malek, 22, of Berwyn, Ill.

Much more below the fold...
Dean Barker :: CREEPer to Elizabeth Edwards: Cut the Cancer Talk
It's unclear to me whether or not Malek's earlier fondness for drunken barbarism barbaqueism influenced at all the carrying out of his prominent role within the Nixon Administration.  You make the call:

Malek's responsiveness program was extensively investigated by the Senate Watergate committee. The panel found that the program was aimed at influencing decisions concerning government "grants, contracts, loans, subsidies, procurement and construction projects," decisions regarding "legal and regulatory actions," and even personnel decisions that affected protected "career positions" -- all to advance Nixon's reelection.

Wow.  I'm thinking Mr. Malek might really feel at home in Bush's concept of the current Department of Justice. But that's not all:

The Post reported that in 1971 Malek had ordered the FBI to conduct an investigation of then-veteran CBS correspondent and Nixon critic Daniel Schorr.

Small potatoes, though - it's just that dirty hippie NPR guy who goes on and on during my Saturday morning trip to the garbage dump.  You know what really "should be off-limits from the political and partisan battlefield"?  Witch hunts for Jews.  Yeah, I'm thinking witch hunting Jews is an even bigger partisan no-no than talking about cancer:

It was also in 1971, The Post reported, that Malek was given a patently anti-Semitic order from a paranoid Richard Nixon to count the Jews in high-ranking posts in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Instead of refusing, Malek set about compiling a list of 13 of 35 top BLS employees who, he believed, were Jewish. Less than two months later, two senior BLS officials who were Jewish were moved out of their jobs to less visible posts. Malek acknowledges carrying out the disgusting hunt for Jews, but he denies having anything to do with the transfers.

I could go on about how Malek has gone on to rewarding positions and connections with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.  But that's "political battlefield" stuff.  Instead, let's take a look at what Malek's been up to lately (2004):

The SEC instituted administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against Malek, his company, Thayer Capital Partners, and two Thayer affiliates, TS Equity Partners IV L.L.C, and TC Management Partners IV L.L.C. The SEC charged that in 1998 the Connecticut treasurer, Paul J. Silvester, used state pension investments in Malek's company to reward a friend and political supporter, William DiBella, former majority leader of the Connecticut Senate.

The SEC charged that Malek, who was seeking state money for investment in one of Thayer's funds, hired DiBella and paid him a percentage of the state pension fund's total investment with Malek's company, "even though DiBella had no prior involvement with the transaction and ultimately performed no meaningful work related to the investment." DiBella understood from Silvester that he didn't have to do any work for Malek or his company and that Silvester even increased the amount of the pension fund's investment with Malek "by at least $25 million (to a total of $75 million) solely to secure a larger fee for DiBella," according to the SEC News Digest.

A side note: Why the usually interesting Marc Ambinder would give this creature media oxygen is beyond me.

Update: Look who Malek's "old partner" is, helping him to raise some major coin for the Repubs (AP):

President Bush joined an old partner to raise serious campaign cash for Senate Republicans.

The president headlined a private fundraiser Tuesday night at the home of Fred and Marlene Malek in the wealthy Washington suburb of McLean, Va. The dinner was raising $2 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm of the Senate GOP.

And look at how Our Liberal Media has sanitized Malek's past:

Malek, a veteran of the Nixon White House, also advised Presidents Ford and Reagan and was the 1992 campaign manager for the first President Bush.

More: FWIW, Malek "Sets the Record Straight" on the dog BBQ in his own blog post. Make of it what you will. Personally, I don't know how much of an innocent bystander you can be when you're drunk and hiding in the woods and connected to a blood splattered car (according to the news reports from the incident).
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CREEPer to Elizabeth Edwards: Cut the Cancer Talk | 21 comments
Here's a thought. (4.00 / 1)
If you're a cancer survivor, and now you have cancer for the second time, that makes you an expert on how the American healthcare system deals with people who have cancer.  Just a thought.

--
Get Out The Vote, Spread The Word, and Tell All Your Friends!
Drunken Barbaqueism. eom (4.00 / 2)


Hope > Fear
I am so updating my diary (0.00 / 0)
here and on dKos with that.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
[ Parent ]
aw c'mon (4.00 / 2)
It was a BBQ - they wanted a hot dog.  
Point of Order (4.00 / 3)
Jews are not known to hunt, in general, never mind for witches...

witch hunting Jews, a curious mixed metaphor


Without deviation from the norm, 'progress' is not possible.
~Frank Zappa

A 4 for turning my gerund (4.00 / 3)
into a present participle without changing the words or the order of them.

Wonder if Sununu's fired now.
[ Parent ]
Thanks for raising this, Dean (4.00 / 3)
I've been monitoring this jackass since '92, when he was co-chairman of the Bush re-election campaign and I was a research intern at the DNC.  But have never read a more clear analysis.
Am I just blind or did you (0.00 / 0)
overlook being specific about the meaning of CREEP--the Committee to Re-Elect the President which perpetrated a whole host of dirty tricks on behalf of Nixon?

Anyway, permit me to make the point that one of the central problems we have is the "cure for cancer" mentality which not only considers the disease from the wrong end (after it's already attacked), but uses verbiage that suggests an agenda nobody really wants (one hopes).  Cancer isn't to be cured; it's to be prevented or destroyed.

One of the problems with having medical services delivered as a for profit enterprise is that profit depends on repeated usage and a quantitative surge when, ideally, high quality medical care results in the service no longer being needed at all.  In other words, for-profit health care has no incentive to achieve success.

One suspects that the rapid response to the health issue is indicative that the matter is a big problem.  What's become of Huckabee?  Does anyone else get the sense that he's an understudy?

Prevent v Cure (0.00 / 0)
hannah

I love your perspective on language. A number of times here you have mentioned things in a way that encourages a different perspective just through language/word choice.

Thanks.

I'm reminded of the saying "you can either put a fence at the top of the cliff or an ambulance at the bottom"

Hope > Fear

[ Parent ]
Good observation about, CREEP, hannah, but you, too have overlooked a part of it. (0.00 / 0)
John McCain 2008 IS a committee to re-elect the president.

--
Get Out The Vote, Spread The Word, and Tell All Your Friends!
[ Parent ]
Recreep n/t (0.00 / 0)


Without deviation from the norm, 'progress' is not possible.
~Frank Zappa
[ Parent ]
Moral clarity is for the little people. (0.00 / 0)
From Malek's "Setting The Record Straight" link above:

Rumors abound that I killed and barbecued a dog in the summer of 1959. This is simply not true.

A recent statement from one person who was there - retired and highly decorated Colonel, Andrew P. O'Meara, Jr. - couldn't make it more clear:


   "Scurrilous allegations have recently been directed at Fred Malek charging that he killed and barbecued a dog in the summer of 1959. The allegations are totally false. During a trip to Peoria, IL in the summer of 1959, I became inebriated and in an ill-advised preparation for Ranger School survival training, I killed and barbecued a dog [Fred and a few others happened to be on the trip to Peoria but had nothing to do with the incident]. I was subsequently arrested, brought before a Magistrate, fined $200 for cruelty to animals and the incident was closed, I take full responsibility for my ill-advised actions that were a source of embarrassment to the Army and the Ranger School"

Andy takes full responsibility for the incident. I'd like to thank Andy for being a man with the integrity, to volunteer this information on the record and help keep the record straight and clear up my name.

Let's switch this up a bit.

Rumors abound that I killed and barbecued a child in the summer of 1959. This is simply not true.

A recent statement from one person who was there - retired and highly decorated Lieutenant William Calley - couldn't make it more clear:

"Scurrilous allegations have recently been directed at Fred Malek charging that he killed and barbecued a child in the summer of 1959. The allegations are totally false. During a trip to Peoria, IL in the summer of 1959, Fred and I and a couple of friends got stumbling drunk and in an ill-advised preparation for winning hearts and minds, I killed and barbecued a child [Fred and the boys had nothing to do with the incident.  Yes, they wound up with blood all over their pants somehow, but really, they bear no personal responsibility.]"

So let's get this straight.  My good friend, the highly honorable Lt. Calley?  A child murderer.  Me?  A totally innocent observer and abetter.

Somehow I do not believe that the claim of moral absolution because he had no blood directly on his hands (only on his pants) and only stood by and observed, and perhaps tangentially helped out by transporting the body, would not carry much weight with a jury.

animal rights v national security (0.00 / 0)
an ill-advised preparation for Ranger School survival training,

It may be hard to grasp, but not everyone thinks of domesticated animals in the same way, especially circa 1959.

Did you know that special ops training requires the killing of small animals for survival?

Please don't put animal rights up against national security.

Many more male, Indies are gonna favor Ted Nugent over Pamela Anderson on this matter. IMO, this thread hits a wall LOC.


We are the giant. Let's work hard for Obama, Lynch, Shaheen, Hodes, Shea-Porter and all Dems.
No Regrets.  

dude, please (0.00 / 0)
Does their training include getting drunk, too? They weren't on a training exercise when this happened. They were just a bunch of inebriated morons with defective morals.

[ Parent ]
Inebriated, yes! (0.00 / 0)
But there was a purpose that is not understood by most.

Which is a good thing, btw.

I can't really defend what they did, but I think it is a mistake to run it up the flagpole of indignation.

This story plays in the room based on the crowd that hears it. Tell this story to a bunch of grunts in Iraq and they will laugh. Would they do it? Unlikely. Will they be shocked? Hardly.


We are the giant. Let's work hard for Obama, Lynch, Shaheen, Hodes, Shea-Porter and all Dems.
No Regrets.  

[ Parent ]
is that the standard for indignation? (0.00 / 0)
Last I heard, the likely reaction of battle-hardened cynics was not the best test for what was and wasn't acceptable. If you gather 100 people in a room, and sure, let 5-6 of them be your grunts, and tell them that story, they will all be disgusted, mark my words. Your grunts, wishing to God that they could forget their time under fire and be reintegrated into society, would join the crowd.

This false machismo is what gets us into trouble in the first place. Barbecuing a dog. Jesus.  

[ Parent ]
false machismo (0.00 / 0)
The dirty little secret that we like to gussie up with hero worship is that in war, we turn nice young people into monsters.

Then we ask them to come back and play nice.

Mr.Malek et al, went to far, but they weren't funnin' around.  

We are the giant. Let's work hard for Obama, Lynch, Shaheen, Hodes, Shea-Porter and all Dems.
No Regrets.  

[ Parent ]
jack, i think you are misreading the situation (4.00 / 1)
You say that special forces training can require living off the land, hunting and eating small animals to survive.

Did they have to hunt the dog? Or did it come when it was called?

Whose dog was it? What child went to bed crying that night, because her dog didn't come home?

This story has nothing to do with military service or with honor. It's just a bunch of drunken assholes who did something to be ashamed of, tried to hide, got caught, and even 50 years later try to hide behind some warped idea of patriotism and military values.

You really are defending the indefensible.

[ Parent ]
I got a little sidetracked (0.00 / 0)
only because it does no good, imo, to try to sway certain demographics by harping on this point about the dog BBQ.

I imagined that the original connotation of the "retelling of the BBQ" was to paint Malek as some bed wetting, animal sadist that is a damaged mind, thus discounting Malek and by proxy, McSame.

Your barking up the wrong tree with half the swing vote. The right is very good at creating guilt by association. A vocal minority of the left runs with PETA, but the right will paint the entire progressive movement as wing nuts to shift the center to the right.

Lets stand up for torture on humans today and let sleeping dogs lay.

Message discipline is crucial. Guilt by association is tricky business and best left to experts. What's the road to November? Turning out the base or cutting into the ROC?

McSame will hand us our ass, if we go to far left, like PETA left.

But I am from away, so whatevs.


We are the giant. Let's work hard for Obama, Lynch, Shaheen, Hodes, Shea-Porter and all Dems.
No Regrets.  

[ Parent ]
good grief (4.00 / 1)
I am not harping on it. But i think a few bedrock principles have to apply. If that is "far left," then maybe the goalposts have moved further than i thought. I am now done with this.
[ Parent ]
Voodoo Health Economics by Mc Cain (4.00 / 1)
from KrugMan today


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04...
Elizabeth Edwards has cancer. John McCain has had cancer in the past. Last weekend, Mrs. Edwards bluntly pointed out that neither of them would be able to get insurance under Mr. McCain's health care plan.It's about time someone said that and, more generally, made the case that Mr. McCain's approach to health care is based on voodoo economics - not the supply-side voodoo that claims that cutting taxes increases revenues (though Mr. McCain says that, too), but the equally foolish claim, refuted by all available evidence, that the magic of the marketplace can produce cheap health care for everyone.

As Mrs. Edwards pointed out, the McCain health plan would do nothing to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those, like her and Mr. McCain, who have pre-existing medical conditions.

Voodoo McCainomics   (patent pending, copyright JBB 4/4/08)

Without deviation from the norm, 'progress' is not possible.
~Frank Zappa

CREEPer to Elizabeth Edwards: Cut the Cancer Talk | 21 comments
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