I can't think of a name
09-03-2009, 05:09 PM
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112489380
Coveted Ambassadorships Go To Obama Fundraisers
This is just one sign of how President Obama is continuing a time-honored tradition of rewarding donors with plum assignments abroad.
When Obama came into office talking about change, he raised some expectations that he would alter the way he would choose new ambassadors.
“My general inclination is to have civil service, wherever possible, serve in these posts,” he said in January.
At the time, he told reporters that there would be some political appointees to ambassadorships, but that he wanted to reward the rank and file, too.
“I want to recruit young people into the State Department to feel that this is a career track that they can be on for the long term, and so my expectation is that high-quality civil servants are going to be rewarded,” Obama said.
But so far, more than half of the ambassadors he has named are political appointees — including several so-called bundlers, or superfundraisers who organize and collect campaign contributions, according to Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics.
In Japan, Silicon Valley lawyer Roos — who had never been to the country prior to his appointment — is already settling in as ambassador. Levinthal says Roos was a bundler who brought in more than $500,000 for the Obama campaign.
Not that Obama is behaving any different from past Presidents, but his "soaring rhetoric" we heard so much about was that, rhetoric. Japan has a new government that is serious about realigning US-Japan relations. We have a guy with no experience there to manage this? Maybe Obama will create a "US/Japan czar"
Coveted Ambassadorships Go To Obama Fundraisers
This is just one sign of how President Obama is continuing a time-honored tradition of rewarding donors with plum assignments abroad.
When Obama came into office talking about change, he raised some expectations that he would alter the way he would choose new ambassadors.
“My general inclination is to have civil service, wherever possible, serve in these posts,” he said in January.
At the time, he told reporters that there would be some political appointees to ambassadorships, but that he wanted to reward the rank and file, too.
“I want to recruit young people into the State Department to feel that this is a career track that they can be on for the long term, and so my expectation is that high-quality civil servants are going to be rewarded,” Obama said.
But so far, more than half of the ambassadors he has named are political appointees — including several so-called bundlers, or superfundraisers who organize and collect campaign contributions, according to Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics.
In Japan, Silicon Valley lawyer Roos — who had never been to the country prior to his appointment — is already settling in as ambassador. Levinthal says Roos was a bundler who brought in more than $500,000 for the Obama campaign.
Not that Obama is behaving any different from past Presidents, but his "soaring rhetoric" we heard so much about was that, rhetoric. Japan has a new government that is serious about realigning US-Japan relations. We have a guy with no experience there to manage this? Maybe Obama will create a "US/Japan czar"