Leslie Lenkowsky, the former head of George W. Bush’s Corporation for National and Community Service, has a long track record working for conservative organizations, think tanks, foundations, and administrations. His resume includes stints as a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, president of the Hudson Institute, president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, and acting deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency under President Reagan.
Perhaps Lenkowsky’s most influential role came when he served as the director of research at the Smith Richardson Foundation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which time he helped nurture the work of a number of influential neoconservative thinkers and organizations. Said Lenkowksy in a 1981 interview about the work of the foundation: “We don't create ideas, we nurture them, a bit like fertilizer. … If the sprout is there, we make it grow into a mighty oak.” In particular, Lenkowsky thought that Norman Podhoretz’s and Irving Kristol’s ideas would “have a long-term impact” on how people thought about public affairs. (1) (2)
Building on the support he received from Lenkowsky and SRF, Kristol helped convince the foundation to back Jude Wanniski’s research on supply side economics. Wanniski’s influential book on the subject went on to serve as a guide for Ronald Reagan’s economic policies when Jack Kemp, convinced of the book’s merits by Kristol, brought it to the attention of the president. (3) (4)
Lenkowsky also oversaw SRF’s efforts to fund college newspapers, including The Dartmouth Review, where a young Dinesh D’Souza got his start. As editor-in-chief, D’Souza used the newspaper to out homosexual students by investigating subscribers, including their parents. Files allegedly stolen from the university’s Gay Student Alliance appeared in the paper, some of which contained “names and parts of letters written by lonely students.” D’Souza went on to be a key crusader against the so-called liberal bias in universities, beginning with his book Illiberal Democracy. SRF joined with other conservative foundations to fund much of this work. (5) (14)
Also during Lenkowsky’s watch, the foundation supported the neoconservative and religious right effort to take the lead in the democracy movement, funding groups like Freedom House and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Key members of these organizations have included Richard John Neuhaus, Michael Novak, and Ed Robb. (6)
In November of 1983, Reagan nominated Lenkowsky to be deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejected his nomination because of allegations that he had blacklisted liberals from speaking on behalf of the agency while serving as its acting deputy. Lenkowsky denied knowing about the practice, but W. Scott Thompson, the agency’s associate director at the time, publicly declared that this process began after Lenkowsky came on board as acting deputy. Those blacklisted included Walter Cronkite, Coretta Scott King, and New York congressman Thomas J. Downey. (8) (9)
Reported the Washington Post at the time: “‘The list only showed up in reaction to Lenkowsky's pressure,’ said Thompson, who has feuded with Lenkowsky in the past. ‘He made clear that no one would go out who wasn’t an advocate of this administration … . He reeled off a long list of neoconservatives who should be selected.’ Thompson said Lenkowsky told him that liberal speakers ‘should be vetoed’ at lower levels so Lenkowsky would not have to do it.” (9)
Thompson, himself a staunch conservative, resigned his post in January 1984. He later became president of the American Security Council, a key domestic supporter of the Contras and a hardline anti-communist outfit. (9)
Reporting for the Post, Sidney Blumenthal wrote that Heritage Foundation president Edwin Feulner, who was chairman of USIA’s Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy at the time, “personally cleared every appointment” to the agency. He tried to resolve the issues between Thompson and Lenkowsky, but to no avail. Thompson eventually testified against Lenkowsky. Lenkowsky later “retreated to the American Enterprise Institute, where he raised funds from conservative sources to support his new staff position.” (10)
Over a decade later, in 2001, Lenkowsky became the chief executive officer of George W. Bush’s Corporation for National and Community Service, where he oversaw—and, some observers say, ran into the ground—the AmeriCorps program, the national volunteer program that was originally established during the Clinton administration. Shortly after Lenkowsky assumed his post, AmeriCorps became embroiled in a crisis over its management and finances, leading to two separate government investigations. (11) (12) (13)
In a speech on the floor of the Senate in June 2003, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) criticized the corporation for bungling the AmeriCorps program and called for Lenkowsky’s resignation. She said: “What a mess we have at the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Congress has funded 50,000 AmeriCorps volunteers, as we have year after year. But guess what? The corporation has enrolled 70,000 volunteers. It seems the corporation can't count. And as a result, there will be fewer volunteers this year. … The corporation has overenrolled 20,000 volunteers. When you make a mistake of 20,000, it’s not a mistake. It’s mismanagement. Two thousand would have been a mistake. Twenty thousand is mismanagement. The corporation has violated the law, mismanaged taxpayer dollars, and created uncertainty for our volunteers and our communities. In April [2003], at the VA/HUD subcommittee, I called on the National Service CEO, Dr. Leslie Lenkowsky, to fix the problem. He promised that he would do that by June 1. But guess what? He called on May 30 and said he just couldn’t do it. Then out came the shrinking of the number of volunteers and out came the blaming on Congress. Instead of fixing the problem, he blamed Congress. … Dr. Lenkowsky has failed to respond to the situation, failed to respond to the Subcommittee request, failed volunteers, failed communities. In the schools I went to, when you get that many Fs, you flunk out. Today I’m asking Dr. Lenkowsky to resign. I’m really sorry we’ve gotten to this point. We cannot continue this. I really think that if we’re going to have a national service program, we need to have a national service program that serves the nation and follows the directive of the Congress.” (17)
