Kirk’s Thugishness

He’s such a nice moderate boy. Not.

Then, in August, Schrayer, who was recently named chairman of the Tel Aviv University American Council, became aware that Caryn Garber, a Kirk staffer, had e-mailed Sam Witkin, president of the council, asking him to contact Itamar Rabinovich, the university’s president, to request that he call Schrayer “and tell him that his actions can have a very bad effect on the University.”

Your new Chicago TAU ‘chief’ … is working overtime to defeat Mark Kirk. The community is not pleased with his out front actions,” Garber wrote. The e-mail continued: “We understand that Schrayer hates Bush … that has NOTHING to do with Mark Steven Kirk. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I know that you and Itamar would not want TAU to be sullied by (Schrayer’s) out of control actions. .. believe me, HE is the talk of the Federation leadership and NOT the kind of talk you’d like.”

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A story in the Chicago Sun-Times reported the e-mail and included a statement by Kirk, who said that Garber’s letter “does not reflect my view. When I heard about it, I was upset.” He told the Sun-Times that he reprimanded Garber and told her she would be fired if it happened again.

That response was not good enough for Schrayer, who said he wrote Kirk originally in August, as soon as he found out about the e-mail. Kirk replied and asked for a copy of the letter, which Schrayer sent him, he said.

“Since then I have written him five e- mails, which he has ignored, asking him what he was doing” about Garber, Schrayer said. “Now I found out he said if she did it again, he would fire her. I just don’t understand why if somebody committed a crime like that, why they would wait until the next time to fire her.

“I think it’s terrible-a sham. We should be encouraging people to vote for whoever is their best candidate. We shouldn’t be trying to intimidate people as to how they vote,” he said.

When the thugishness goes to the offices of the supposed voices of reason, it’s time for a change.

Had enough?