Judge Glock on Twitter/X:
This is a good time to remember one of the most egregious examples of politicized removal in US history, and it involves the Bureau of Labor Statistics too.
Angered by BLS official Howard Goldstein's congressional testimony, President Nixon privately said "There's a Jewish cabal, you know, running through this" and "They all only talk to Jews." After Nixon was assured that aide Fred Malek was not himself Jewish, Malek was tasked with creating a list of Democrats and people with "Jewish-sounding" last names in the bureau. Nixon later asked his aides again, "Did you ever get the number of Jews that were in BLS?” Malek submitted a list of Democrats in the BLS, 25, as well as a list of 13 people with the "demographic criterion" Nixon requested. BLS Commissioner Geoffrey Moore, who Nixon pressured regularly throughout his time in office, had Goldstein moved to another office, and then reorganized the bureau and had two other Jewish officials moved to different offices as well.
Nixon's general attitude to the BLS was public knowledge at the time, even if the anti-Semitic animus behind it was not. The Washington Post editorialized that "The Nixon Administration is bringing hand-picked political appointees into the Bureau of Labor Statistics." Commissioner Moore later submitted his resignation, which was surprisingly accepted, and many at the time saw this as a clear example of how far Nixon was willing to go to politicize BLS. The full story of Nixon's anti-Semitic rage against the BLS would not be revealed until years later.
The original impetus for Nixon's ire? Goldstein's congressional testimony on employment figures.
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