— David Newhall, chief aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Schweiker, is conducting a thorough review of Warren Richardson, Schweiker’s nominee for the Office of Assistant Secretary of the Services agency, who has been charged with anti-Semitism. The review is expected to be completed by the end of the week.
A spokesman for Schweiker said that Richardson’s nomination will be withheld pending the investigation. He will continue to serve as special assistant but not in the legislative area to which he has been assigned, Schweiker’s office said.
Schweiker agreed to delay the nomination following charges of anti-Semitism brought by Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D. Conn.) against Richardson last week. Gejdenson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that if the nomination is not withdrawn, he would personally oppose it before the Senate Finance Committee which must approve the nomination.
Gejdenson identified Richardson as having been counsel and “chief lobbyist” of the ultra-rightwing Liberty Lobby in the 1970s. The Congressman characterized Liberty Lobby as “a racist, anti-Semitic organization” and noted that “its publication, ‘Spotlight,’ espouses white supremacy and refers to the Holocaust as a ‘Jewish myth’.”
CITES ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
Gejdenson cited an article by Richardson that appeared on. The New York Times Op-Ed page in May, 1971 in which he denounced “the cowards who would rather countenance another national dissaster than brave the screams of the pro-Zionist ‘free press’ in America.” According to Health and Human Services Department sources, Richardson told Schweiker that he had written the article but someone else at Liberty Lobby, who he did not name, had inserted the anti-Semitic paragraph. Richardson acknowledged that he served as chief lobbyist for Libery Lobby but insisted that “I am not now nor have I ever been anti-Semitic.”
ADL DENOUNCES NOMINATION
The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith charged that Liberty Lobby “is the most powerful and best financed anti-Semitic propaganda organization in the United States.” Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the ADL, said that during the four-year period when Richardson was Liberty Lobby’s counsel, the organization compiled a public record that included attacks on “Zionist-controlled politicians” who supported Israel and tirades against the integration of Blacks in education and in the armed forces.
Perlmutter also noted that the founder of Liberty Lobby is Willis Carto, a longtime anti-Semite and racist. Carto is the key figure in the Institute for Historical review, a California-based, pseudo-scientific organization that promotes the claim that the Holocaust is a myth, the ADL leader said.
In view of this, he added, having Richardson assume the job of Assistant Secretary of the health servicing department would be “akin to designating a paranoiac to be in charge of a mental asylum.” He urged the Reagan Administration to reconsider plans to nominate Richardson.
Meanwhile, Rep. William Brodhead (D. Mich.) sent a letter to President Reagan urging him to withdraw Richardson’s name from consideration because of his association with Liberty Lobby. “To persist in supporting the nomination of Mr. Richardson would be a demonstration of remarkable insensitivity toward the Jewish community and all people of conscience,” Broadhead wrote.
He noted that not only has Liberty Lobby “a long and virulent history of irresponsible attacks on the Jewish community in this country and around the world,” but it is now attempting “through its surrogate, the Institute for Historical Review, to rewrite the political history of this century, laying the blame for two world wars on members of the Jewish faith and denying the very existence of the Holocaust.”
Brodhead said Richardson’s nomination is wrong because of his involvement “with so malignant an organization” and “because of the encouragement which his nomination will give to Liberty Lobby and other such organizations.” He added that “we should not be telling people that if they organize to promulgate these views, they will ultimately be given an opportunity to advocate them from official position.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
