Fred Malek, Then and Now

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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.

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.

Disclosure of his role in counting Jews cost him his job as deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1988, just as the responsiveness program had wrecked his postal nomination six years earlier.

All that is now considered ancient history. Malek, his friends and supporters vigorously maintain, has atoned for his actions. Now more than ever, he eschews anti-Semitism and adores good government.

In an interview on Thursday, Tony Williams said that longtime baseball advocate Malek has put together a group of investors who are well-anchored in the city and are generous supporters of D.C. schools and other socially useful activities. Malek, the mayor said, is prominently involved in positive community activities and is a key contributor to social causes.

"People also change as they get older," the mayor said. "Don't you think a person deserves a second chance?"

Of course I do. Even a rich, politically connected public figure who abused the public trust and had a major hand in polluting the political culture of this city deserves redemption -- provided, of course, that he (or she) has truly repented.

But that's not for me to judge. Leave it to the owners of Major League Baseball and to area sports fans in whose name Fred Malek seeks to become Washington's new baseball Caesar.

kingc@washpost.com

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