Word: ambassador
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Meet Jim Oberwetter, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which is America’s largest oil supplier and a key strategic partner in the war on terror. Mr. Oberwetter had never set foot in the desert kingdom before he became Ambassador two years ago. His resume boasts a stint as chairman of the American Petroleum Institute, which lobbies on behalf of over 400 oil and gas interests in Washington D.C., and work lobbying for the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, but no knowledge of Arabic. More importantly perhaps, his former employer, Hunt Consolidated Oil, gave $250,000 to Bush?...
...Such stories mark a broader trend of ambassadors appointed for patronage, not skills. From the Floridian property developer serving as Ambassador to Portugal to the Ohio industrialist turned Ambassador to Germany—who apparently compensated for his lack of German language skills with a $561,995 donation to the GOP—experience is no longer a prerequisite for appointment. Instead, fundraising, campaigning, and lobbying ability at home now determine who will represent America in foreign lands...
...course, defenders of our current batch of ambassadors rightly point out that this administration was not the first to put the suitcase of cash before the diplomatic caché. Presidential scholars suggest the shift came last century, when Franklin Roosevelt appointed an especially generous donor, Joseph Kennedy, as his Ambassador to Britain. Since then it has all been downhill. President Nixon is reputed to have once told his Chief of Staff that “anybody who wants to be an ambassador must at least give $250,000.” In 1980, Congress even felt the need to legislate...
...that the Maoists also played a huge, although mostly hidden, role in making the protests a success, by sending their cadres out onto the streets. "It is hard to believe that all the people out on the streets were members of political parties," says Bhekh Thapa, a former Nepali ambassador to the United States. "It is very likely that Maoist sympathizers added to the numbers of those protesting in many places...
...Where Jaafari had been branded as passive, aloof and high-handed by his critics, Maliki - who has taken a lead in de-Baathification efforts that have alienated many Sunnis - is deemed to be a dogged negotiator who doesn't easily change his position. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad praised him as a tough-minded, independent leader who is saying all the right things. Then again, it is easy to forget that Washington was loquacious in its praise for Jaafari less than a year...