The Arizona Assholes and the Southern Belle have been joined by Sam Brownback, James Inhoffe, John Ensign and Kit Bond in opposing the appointment of Christopher Hill to be the next ambassador to Iraq. This clutch of warmongers are naturally opposed to any move by the administration that might facilitate getting us the hell out of that clusterfuck.
Following the GOP Conference meeting Tuesday, five senior senators sent a letter to Obama urging him to withdraw the nomination. They decried what they see as Hill's lack of Middle East experience and his poor handling of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
"We do not believe that now is the time to appoint an ambassador who may need the equivalent of a crash course in Iraqi affairs," the letter stated. "There are today, both within the Foreign Service and outside it, a number of individuals who possess much greater qualifications for this post than does" Hill.
Among the latest Republicans to come out against the nomination is Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona, who said he couldn't understand why Obama hadn't chosen someone who speaks Arabic or has diplomatic experience in the region.
"This is arguably the most important ambassadorial position the U.S. has right now, and I'm sure there must be some other people who have spent any time whatsoever in the Middle East," Kyl said in an interview. "I suggest they try to find somebody else."
Kyl's objections echo those of his Arizona colleague, Republican Sen. John McCain , who released a statement opposing the Hill nomination last week, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham , R-S.C.
Besides Kyl, the other signees were Sam Brownback of Kansas, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, John Ensign of Nevada and Christopher S. Bond of Missouri.
Let's be perfectly clear here...every single State Department success that the Bushies can lay any sort of claim to was achieved, pretty much single handedly, by Christopher Hill - in spite of the administration, not because of it.
He is, quite simply, the best Foreign Service Officer this country has had the good sense to keep on the payroll in my lifetime. He is effective, competent, whip-smart and innately likeable. At the time his appointment was announced, I said this:
I have been following Hill's career for quite a while now, and frankly, for my money, I will take Christopher Hill, a crash course in Arabic and a good, solid interpreter staff over any other possible candidate, and I am thrilled that President Obama seems to agree with me on that count. The selection of Hill to be the Ambassador to Iraq is a bold choice and it signals that Obama is not screwing around and he isn't getting rolled by anyone, not even if combined they have a whole constellation of stars on their shoulders.
And I stand by it today.
Hill managed the impossible during the Bush years - he managed to commit actual diplomacy while dealing with an administration that found peaceful resolution of conflict anathema, and only accepted a diplomatic solution if there is no other alternative, and then they did so under protest.
Those opposing Hill today are stuck in the mindset of the previous administration, which Hill accurately described his hard-line foes in the Bush administration "These [expletive deleted] don't know how to negotiate," he said. "Everything is Appomattox. It's just 'Come out with your hands up.' " (That brutally honest assessment appears in David Sanger's recently published book, The Inheritance.)
Fortunately, the nomination received the imprimatur of Richard Lugar, one of the few remaining sane republicans in the Senate, and this means his nomination is likely to be approved in committee after his hearing on March 25. Lugar praised his work in the far east and said after meeting with him that "He has very good contacts in Iraq, and I'm convinced he has the experience to be an exemplary ambassador."
Brownback, however, is threatening to put a hold on the nomination, and that could stall the nomination indefinitely. Fortunately, after January 2010, that creepy freak will be back among his own kind and wrecking a single state rather than his current gig of screwing the Democrats for spite. Maybe he sees it as a three-fer because his petulance is also screwing the entire country and the rest of the world.
Brownback has his skirts in a full-on flounce because Hill made a promise to him in July regarding the six-party talks that was not kept - not because of anything Hill did, but because the Bush administration blocked his efforts to keep it.
Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry , D-Mass., also sought to deflect blame for the incomplete result of the six-party talks onto Bush and his senior advisers.
"Had Ambassador Hill not been hamstrung by infighting among senior members of the Bush administration, President Obama might not have inherited such a dangerous problem on the Korean Peninsula," Kerry said in a statement.
Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin , D-Mich., also defended the Hill nomination and downplayed the importance of having an ambassador who knows a lot about Iraq. "We have ambassadors that go all over the world that don't have any experience in the areas that they run," Levin said.
It is time to start not merely calling these Senators, but calling them out. Publicly. In letters to the editor and on public affairs call-in shows. And punish them. Hard. Show them that they are not the only people who know how to say "No!" If they want it, it's a non-starter until they grow the fuck up and start putting the interests of the country ahead of their own petulance.
The republicans have already lost two elections in a row by humiliating margins. They appear to be just fine with that trend and shooting for a hat-trick. |
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