Wednesday with Avrom – Can do CANDOR!

“You can’t buy a good reputation; you must earn it.” Harvey Mackay

Avrom has a stellar reputation which he earned with impeccable integrity, honesty, and kindness. In 1985, Avrom was immersed in a controversy on possible misdeeds involving Mr. W, the Deputy Director of Office of Management and Budget. Mr. W allegedly asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to speed up a pricing case against his father’s oil company. Senator Eagleton was convinced Mr. W, with the assistance of the DOE, fixed the case.

Avrom, as a senior DOE lawyer who led a large group of lawyers, accountants, and auditors who investigated oil companies, was a crucial witness in determining whether the DOE illegally helped Mr. W. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the hearing and explained that Avrom was not a political appointee but rather a Harvard Law School graduate who had been a civil servant for 23 years. Further, the WSJ remarked, “you would have had to work hard to dream up such rotten luck for the prosecution – the man is an ordained rabbi.”?

Avrom testified there was no political pressure, no wrongdoing, and the case was settled in a routine matter. Senator Eagleton bluntly declared, “I don’t think he is telling the truth,” and proceeded to cross examine him. The WSJ explained how Avrom controlled the exchange, “Senator Eagleton baited the witness in the grand tradition, but the witness parried the thrusts and baited the senator right back.”?

Because Senator Eagleton did not produce a shred of evidence, other senators came to Avrom’s defense. Senator Rudman stated, “Let me make a comment for the record…I have understood the testimony as much as anyone in this room, and I understand candor when I hear it. I want to say for the record that any kind of allegation that you [Avrom] have not told the truth here is based on no facts whatsoever; it is simply based on someone wanting to prove a point they want to prove, and I am little offended as a member of this panel that anyone wanted to make this charge against you.” The hearing ended with Senator Eagleton not producing any evidence of wrongdoing from Avrom or the witnesses who followed him.

Benjamin Franklin noted, “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” Avrom was determined not to let Senator Eagleton interfere with his apolitical work as a government attorney. He respectfully stood up to him, defended his good name and demonstrated the importance of candor.

This is part 48 in the Wednesday with Avrom series, please check out more?here.