Legal Commentary

Memories Are Short

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Today’s NYT has a buried article on some of the Bush administration’s latest good-bye presents for the nation: various appointments that will last long into the next administration.

The article, White House Memo - On His Way Out, Bush Leads Others In, by Jim Rutenberg, claims that these appointments are mostly uncontroversial. If so, that’s only because memories are short.

Consider this paragraph:

That same day, Mr. Bush appointed a longtime family friend and former business partner, Fred V. Malek, to the board of visitors of the United States Military Academy. Mr. Malek, who was a partner with Mr. Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team, will serve for three years. A West Point graduate, he has donated generously to its campus; his appointment, like the others, provoked no complaint.

That’s amazing. We’re talking about the guy who was Nixon’s hatchet man and political manipulator and who wrote the infamous Jew-counting “Malek Memo”. But then forgetting Malek’s history appears to be a well-entrenched DC phenomenon.

Full post as published by Discourse.net on December 07, 2008 (boomark / email).