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"Incoming presidents of both parties have often made exceptions to allow ambassadors to wrap up personal affairs and important diplomatic business while their successors were in the confirmation process, which can take months. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Mr. Obama all granted extensions for a few politically appointed ambassadors. Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell offered particularly wide latitude to ambassadors facing family issues, said Marc Grossman, a longtime diplomat and former top State Department official who is vice chairman of the Cohen Group, a Washington consultancy." http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us...bassadors.html
"oh geez... try reading this:"
Oh geez, try reading your OWN cited articles.
" have often made exceptions"
Which says to be that it has NOT been done EVERY TIME. In FACT does not even imply MOST of the time, just "often"
"all granted extensions for a fewpolitically appointed ambassadors.
Again - more uproar about nothing - please check this out - the Costa Rica ambassador referenced in the article - the position was vacant for over a year so no loss if we don't have people locked and ready to fill these positions. The man has money - like most all of the appointees - has moved extensively throughout his career - so this move should be no different and has contributed quite a bit to the Obama campaigns - hence his appointment.
Do I feel sorry for them - no - they've been given the opportunity to serve their country but more so enjoy living in another country at the American people's expense - no one is handing me free vacations.
Yep. And they will be replaced by a new crop of political appointees, as has been done all along.
Seems neither party is interested in eliminating political appointments, rewarding friends, donors, bundles, party hacks and so on.
Fed Government picks up the tab for two- way moves. The few with children in schools will need to secure a visa and find another residence if they choose to stay.
These are temporary posts and they all understand this. They were given notice 12/23.
Political appointees are always replaced with a new crop of political appointees when power changes hands.
Exactly. I guess 12/23 is the official written notice, but you'd think they would have figured out their jobs were short-lived as of
November 9, the day after Trump won the election. Or even if Hillary had won, there would be no guarantees they could keep their posts. I'm sure Hillary would have had her own new crop of campaign and Foundation donors to reward with an ambassadorship.
Exactly. I guess 12/23 is the official written notice, but you'd think they would have figured out their jobs were short-lived as of
November 9, the day after Trump won the election. Or even if Hillary had won, there would be no guarantees they could keep their posts. I'm sure Hillary would have had her own new crop of campaign and Foundation donors to reward with an ambassadorship.
I doubt if any of the people involved thought that Trump would break with long standing tradition in granting informal extensions to people who can't leave immediately, that is the point here, not that they didn't know they had to leave. And what is the logic behind leaving these posts empty for several months? The new Ambassadors all need senate confirmation and I don't know that he has appointed more than two or three so far. IMO this new policy is a crass, nasty move and reinforces the image of the Trump camp as being a bunch of sore winners.
Again - more uproar about nothing - please check this out - the Costa Rica ambassador referenced in the article - the position was vacant for over a year so no loss if we don't have people locked and ready to fill these positions. The man has money - like most all of the appointees - has moved extensively throughout his career - so this move should be no different and has contributed quite a bit to the Obama campaigns - hence his appointment.
Do I feel sorry for them - no - they've been given the opportunity to serve their country but more so enjoy living in another country at the American people's expense - no one is handing me free vacations.
Andy Schapiro is another one of the whiners ..... I can't say that I blame him. He lives in a 72 room mansion with a staff to match and that's only the main house. 4 more villas on the palatial estate with 6 acres. It's worth noting that the Czech Republic didn't have an Ambassador at all for the first year of the Obama Administration - it must have been difficult for him to decide which of his Big Money Bundlers (and college buddies) would get the "plum assignment.
Obama appointed a series of folks to keep the doors open before he settled on the Reward Package for the Bundlers
Mary Thompson-Jones (career diplomate & Deputy Chief of Mission in the Czech Republic)
Title: Chargés d’affaires ad interim
Appointed: January 20, 2009
Terminated mission: May 2010
John Ordway
Title: Chargés d’affaires ad interim
Appointed: May 2010
Terminated mission: August 2010
Joseph Pennington
Title: Chargés d’affaires ad interim
Appointed: August 2010
Terminated mission: December 30, 2010
Norman L. Eisen – Non-career appointee
Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Appointed: December 30, 2010
Presented credentials: January 28, 2011
Terminated mission: September 30, 2014
Following his retirement, the United States Department of State tapped Mr. Ordway to serve as interim Chargé d'Affaires at five United States embassies: Kathmandu, Nepal (December 2009 – January 2010), Sofia, Bulgaria (August 2009 – November 2009), Vienna, Austria (May 2009 – July 2009), Prague, Czech Republic (May 2010 – August 2010), and Astana, Kazakhstan (January 2011 – July 2011, and again from October 2013 - December 2014).. It appears that several of the "Charge d'affaires" were retired career diplomats" [/i]
Bottom Line - the world as we know it does not end because a Political Bundler has to leave his cushy Mansion ..... business continues, just without the Political appointee.
Andrew H. Schapiro – Non-career appointee
Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Appointed: July 23, 2014
Terminated Mission: January 20, 2017
Chargé d'affaires
The person in charge of the business of the embassy when there is no ambassador commissioned to the host country.
Ad interim
Latin phrase meaning "for the time being", "in the meantime".
“Schapiro is seeking housing in Prague as well as lobbying his children’s Chicago-based school to break with policy and accept them back midyear,” the Times wrote.
Schapiro bundled $424,450 for Obama during the 2012 campaign, for a total of $1,260,891 since 2007. Aside from raising millions for his college friend, Schapiro has donated $148,860 personally to Democrats since 2000.
Chicago magazine called Schapiro’s appointment to the Czech Republic a “plum diplomatic post.”
“It’s a lovely assignment,” the magazine wrote. “The ambassador’s 72-room Beaux-Arts residence, built in the late 1920s by a Jewish businessman and once home to the late Shirley Temple Black, ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the 1989 Velvet Revolution, sits on six acres, and comes complete with a uniformed staff.”
I doubt if any of the people involved thought that Trump would break with long standing tradition in granting informal extensions to people who can't leave immediately, that is the point here, not that they didn't know they had to leave. And what is the logic behind leaving these posts empty for several months? The new Ambassadors all need senate confirmation and I don't know that he has appointed more than two or three so far. IMO this new policy is a crass, nasty move and reinforces the image of the Trump camp as being a bunch of sore winners.
I doubt that any of these Ambassadors (also friends with Hillary) ever thought that Donald J. Trump would be the President of the United States -- they surely expected that the Presumptive Queen would get her crown. They all had Election Parties to Celebrate .... which fell pretty flat with the same pictures of snowflakes on the ground in tears.
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