“A staffer for Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.), in a threatening e-mail, tried to get the president of Tel Aviv University to pressure a prominent supporter of Democrat Dan Seals to back down,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports today.
Chicago insurance magnate Robert “Bob” Schrayer had been a big supporter of Kirk’s, but switched this election to throw his weight behind Kirk’s Democratic opponent, Dan Seals.
Schrayer is also a mucky-muck with an advisory council for Tel Aviv University. In July, Kirk staffer Caryn Garber e-mailed another University official, pressuring him to get Tel Aviv University’s president to persuade Schrayer to drop his support for Seal.
If he didn’t, Garber warned, bad things could happen to the university, which receives U.S. government funding.
“[University president] Itamar [Rabinovitch] should call Bob [Schrayer] and tell him his actions can have a very bad effect on the university,” Garber wrote from her personal e-mail account. (“Kirk is a member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Foreign Operations subcommittee, which handles grants to entities in Israel and other countries,” the paper notes.)
Garber added, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Rep. Kirk says he’s since reprimanded Garber, and vowed to fire her if she ever does it again.