Cleaning The Stables At State
By Cernig Wednesday Dec 03, 2008 1:00pmSo far, Obama has only nominated one ambassador - career professional Susan Rice as ambassador to the UN. Here she is in September talking about Obama's foreign policy.
Following up on reports of Obama's intended Herculean cleaning of the Agean Stables at the Department of Defense, where the entire body of Bush-appointed deputies and under-whatevers are expected to be fired, the Washington Post now reports that the incoming Obama administration has told every single Bush political appointee as an ambassador that their services will no longer be required come January 20th.
That's an awful lot of ambassadors. An unusually high percentage of Bush's ambassador picks throughout his presidency - about half - have been "political appointees," as opposed to career foreign officers and without fail those political appointees have been big campaign donors, each raising over $100,000 for Bush and lots more for the Republican Party.
Nations that have had these, usually clueless, ambassadors foisted upon them just so that Bush could thank his biggest funders with a prestige sinecure include: Canada, Mexico, Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Singapore and the European Union as well as a host of smaller nations. The United States is the only nation which habitually staffs its top diplomatic positions in other countries with check-writing rank amateurs rather than professional diplomats.
Back in 2006, in American Diplomacy magazine, retired senior Foreign Service officer Alan Berlind wrote:
[T]he day will dawn when our elected leaders rediscover the need for dialogue and reasonable accommodation in our international relationships. When that happens, the job of repairing the enormous damage done to those relationships and restoring our reputation, credit, and influence in the world will fall in large part to America’s diplomats, most particularly, American ambassadors, i.e., the senior representatives of the American government and people abroad. What better time, then, to re-examine the almost uniquely American practice of including among those representatives large numbers of people only rarely qualified for the job.
What better time indeed. If Obama actually breaks with the tradition of the last three presidents and appoints more than two thirds of his ambassadors from the pool of foreign service professionals, then that will definitely be change I can believe in.
Crossposted from Newshoggers
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Funny - when I first read it I saw "Cleaning the Stables at Slate" and thought - about time!
Ah, yet another function of administration changeover that the Right Wing Noise Machine will screech up into a tale of false umbrage and conspiracy. Not that we should care, but it's worth being aware that it's about to happen. And wait till Obama gets to the Department of Justice...
Payback's a bitch.
You mean actually appoint qualified people whom are diplomats in real life?
This is great news. Now, the question is who will Obama choose to fill those positions.
I never knew that we sent lackeys to our most avid allies. They must have loved us for that!
How about Joe Wilson for Ambassador to Iraq. He got results when he was there before.
He did. Plus, it would be a nice f**** you to Dick Cheney.
but--is he a diplomat? is that where is credentials lay--in foreign service?
He--and his wife--should be handsomely compensated for what they've been put through by the vandals, thugs and criminals that have been running everything these 8 years.
I wonder what ran through Wilson's head when he heard Rove say they would never have invaded Iraq if they knew there were no WMD.
But if it'd been me, I'dve been thinking this
Yes, Wilson is a career diplomat. He was U.S. special envoy to Iraq under George H.W. Bush just before the first gulf war. Something the right wing noise machine conveniently neglected to mention while they were trying to paint him as some kind of a far-left, anti-American, anti-Republican, anarchist loonie.
But as for the bit about appointing him Ambassador to Iraq as a f-ck you to Dick Cheney, I think it would be more appropriate to make him Ambassador to Qatar, or the Bahamas, since that's where Cheney is obviously going to FLEE on January 20th.
As for Ambassador to Iraq, Barbara Bodine would be better, despite what the Fox noise machine said about her in that fake movie "Road to 911" or whatever it was called.
Either as an Ambassador or in another role. She was well respected as ambassador to Yemen. If Obama wants to close Gitmo, they'll need to find countries to accept a lot of the prisoners-and she's just the person to negotiate with Yemen to take them.
And much better looking! :)
That's Augean Stables, as in the labors of Hercules I think.
1 - It is very rare for a country with which we have cordial long-standing relations (Great Britain, France, etc) to have a career foreign service officer appointed as ambassador. They prefer political appointees so that the ambassador in question has a personal channel to the president. The appointment of a career officer as Ambassador to these countries could be viewed as an insult.
2 - All ambassadors submit their resignations to the incoming president regardless of whether they are political appointees or career officers.
Yes it would be interesting to see career FSOs appointed, but the countries in question may have their own thoughts on this.
...but that's not what this posting says: it says they've been fired. not quite the same thing.
there needs to be a lot of firings. a helluva lot.
Yup, that's the usual conservative line of defense.
It is off course utter bulls**t.
None of those nations appoint political appointees as ambassadors, so how could they be insulted by them?
Regards, C (a Brit, who reads Brit papers and listens to Brit civil servants who all hate the croneyism of for-pay ambassador appointments.)
Hey, here's a really novel idea(for America anyway) why not have career diplomat ambassadors that HAVE access to the President just as it's always meant to be! Just because the America hating piece of shit bush wouldn't let real diplomats into his presence is no reason to expect Obama to be that fucktarded braindead.
/ They prefer political appointees so that the ambassador in question has a personal channel to the president.
Most countries with long-standing cordial relations with the US (Great Britain, France, etc) have a direct line to the President.
In these cases the Ambassador's role is as much to promote America's commercial and cultural interests as it is to be a conduit for diplomacy.
i am very curious to see how obama handles a possible bolivian ambassador. and what evo's reponse will be.
i'm looking forward to that too. seems to me it's not nearly so likely to be an ideologically antagonistically based relationship under Bama.
the US ambassador doesn't actively work to overthrow the morales administration we would be moving towards something better.
excellent point.
Judging from Obama's comments it would not surprise me to see him continue that policy.
Can I be ambassador to Belize?
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease? Pretty please?!
No way! I want that one!
But the fact is that most countries want one of the President's buddies as their Ambassador. The closer the buddy the higher the country's elevation on the radar screen and the more likely whatever message they want to send will reach a Presidential ear.
but being a big donor in order to further your own greedy aims is a lot different from just being a buddy.
disagree with that.
..there's nothing wrong with bringing your friends along as long as they're competent to do the job--and actually DO IT.
So--what has George brought along?
man, we're gonig to be years--decades--recovering from this protracted crime.
" there are those who try to convince us that foreign leaders are indeed flattered to have a friend and political supporter of the President of the United States as local interlocutor, and that the latter will have easier access to the halls of power in the capital in which he serves. That may occasionally be the case where autocratic rulers prize adulation and personal contact above substance, but, as will be shown below, political appointees ordinarily seek and end up in postings to countries where higher value is assigned to professionalism and sophistication in diplomatic relations. Might not governments in such places wonder why they do not merit professional representation from the United States?"
The author notes that the main defender of political appointees has been the neocon Heritage Foundation and its proxies.
Regards, C
...think how relieved all those countries are going to be to be able finally to do business with somebody who actually knows something.
What a change this is going to be. Wonder what the tr0lls will have to say to critique the idea of acutally putting COMPETENCE in those ambassadorships.
"I wanna talk about The Clenis, yew stinkin' libs!"
that's exactly (why didn't I think of this?) where their one-track dirty minds will go.
...had an original thought in a long, LONG time and all their thoughts are full of cocks. Not there is anything inherently wrong with that, but if all you can do is talk about cocks, no matter what the subject is at hand, you have a problem.
For their close ties to Obama...I would suspect that if the country possesses nukes could be a factor for instance. But for countless others a career diplomat could bring far more benefits to that country with an ambassador trained to work with them...not lord over them. Appointment of a political hack would not indicate 'change' to these countries right when we need to be highlighting it the most.
But at least Bush didn't sully the sanctity of the Lincoln Bedroom by letting his donors sleep there.
Sully. Yeh. Sully the Sanctity. Scans nicely.
...was that a shot at The Clenis?
When Clenis speaks
People duck.
Cleaning this stable will be a Herculean task
Augeanly speaking of course.
Flush them out.
Then sandblast the walls, hose down the floors with hot water, burn all the linens, throw bleach all over everything, then call in a team of exorcists to cast out the remaining evil spirits that managed to survive the physical cleanse.
Don't fire them out of hand... Give them the benefit of the doubt, ask for reports on what they've done/accomplished during their time in office. THEN fire them for incompetence.
Nothing.
Let's not waste any more time on things like niceties. Get rid of these bums.
(All kidding aside, you are correct in that prudence isn't the worst thing in the world, Filthy)
That's how things should work anyway. I am sick and tired of the only qualification for the president's appointees being how well they answered "What do you admire most about President Bush?"
...would be the US ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins. His previous career was as a Republican house member (he became Speaker) in the South Carolina state legislature. He had previously been to Canada only once. IOW he was about as qualified as Michael D. 'heckuva job' Brown was at FEMA.
His appointment would have been viewed as an insult except for the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, who couldn't get his nose too far up Bush's ass.
I wont be sad to see Wilkins go either. Carlucci was bad enough. In the meanwhile, ill just bask in the glorious defeat of Canadian Conservatives too. Harpers going down and i couldn't be happier. He must be using his Karl Rove playbook now too. Lying his ass off and trying to scare the Canadian electorate. Harper can relocate to Crawford and clear brush with the homebound village idiot/drunk.Nice to post unmoderated here. CBC don't appear to like my sentiments and i Canadianized it too. Nice and polite with measured doses of sarcasm.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/03/jea...
He also claimed it was a separatist coalition cause you know, those damn secessionist Frenchies.
Were these Augeans?
https://www.cartoongallery.com/Webstore/image...
Making a political appointment wouldn't really matter (lots of presidents have done it) as long as the idiot lets his staff do their jobs without interference. Unfortunately all of Bush's were adamant about trying to enforce the Cheney mandates.
While it seems like during the election where Obama was Batman, Biden was Robin, McCain was the Penguin, and Palin was Catwoman, would that make Hillary Batgirl? Probably worth a look by looking on Youtube and typing in "McPenguin".
The Australian ambassador resigned THE MINUTE it was announced that Obama had won the election. It was all over our news on the day. He had some reason to run away with his tail between his legs OR he knew that what his agenda was was not going to fly in Australia any longer.
Maybe the guy was just waiting for ANY excuse to get the hell outta Oz?
Hopefully Obama knows someone who judges Arabian Horses that he can appoint to something important... Oh... that's right, he actually looks at a resume instead of a fund raiser's list...lol
It gives me great joy to hear this. My worst fear was that they were going to leave all these political plants in their positions. Hope they work further down the foodchain as well. You know these clowns were hiring their OWN clowns too.
Department of Justice next, then EPA (if they're not cleaning 'em out all ready).
I want everyone who worked for the Bush administration to have to go through the same tough review and if they accomplished nothing (or nothing worth while) they should get fired. I hope that by keeping Gates, the bushees at the defense department don't stay on as well.
Why are presidents not required to appoint foreign service professionals in these key jobs? Because no one could have anticipated the level of abuse that Bushco would employ? It's past time to change the rules to make sure there won't be such bullshit government in the future.
I first heard of Susan Rice when she appeared on the Black List" documentary and was very impressed by what she said --
"It's old thinking to assume that what's good for African-Americans is the opposite of what's good for white folks. Why do we have to have that zero sum mentality at this point? Why can't we all get better healthcare and better education? I'm an optimist. And so when I get angry, it's easy for me to channel it into just doing more and doing it harder and trying to do it better."
Minute Man @ 13:36 Feb 3,2008
You might want to google the following: Lincoln Bedroom!
If you can read and understand what you're reading, which one of your blowhard,right-wing idiot-savants on talk radio, are you going to quit listening to for telling all the lies about the so-called Lincoln Bedroom?
Shucks you might have to give up right-wing radio all together!
Folks, both the appointments of ambassadorships, and the dismissal of ambassadors following a change in presidency is NORMAL. Ambassadors are ALWAYS appointed in return for something done for the benefit of the President, and when that President leaves office, it is UNDERSTOOD that the incoming President will obviously want to thank his own major contributors with Ambassadorships.
This is not something that Obama invented, so you can all quit drooling and whispering, "See? Already there's change!" because this particular change was inevitable from the start! Bush obviously can't serve another term, so even if McCain had won, Bush's ambassadors STILL would have been given their walking papers.
Status quo does not deserve this much excitement. Calm down, Beavis!
Cliff Sobel the current Amb in Brazil badmouthed Obama all through the campaign. He is now trying to get himself a job on the Obama team. I hope our president elect and his transition team reject his advances.
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