BushCo Tries Pulling a Swiftie on the SFRC
Two Bush-appointed nominees for full-term ambassadorships come up before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this afternoon. One of them is thoroughly qualified for the position he's been nominated for. The other? Well, not so much.
The first one is "Curtis S. Chin, of New York, to be United States Director of the Asian Development Bank, with the rank of Ambassador." Chin's got a rock-solid resume with lots of international finance and govermental experience. He's even held posts in the administrations of both Bushes. So he's probably a pretty good get for the gig.
But the other one, though: "Sam Fox, of Missouri, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Belgium." Argh. That is a whole kettle of fish of a different color.
Fox has no foreign policy background and no experience working in the government. He admits this himself, along with the fact that he can’t speak Dutch or French proficiently either. What he knows about Belgium you could probably fit into one Wikipedia entry, and it's likely to be just about as accurate too.
What Sam Fox has, though, is a lot of money. A whole lot of money. And he knows how to get his hands on even more money than that. He's taken blatant advantage of every possible dodge and legal loophole in the campaign finance laws to funnel soft money to, through, and around the Bush/GOP campaigns for many years. And you can bet they're mighty happy about that.
How happy? Just ask Incurious George:
"I call him Foxie. Foxie, thanks for your friendship."
-- George Bush (at a $2.8 million fundraiser led by Fox)
Fox donated more than $600,000 to Bush-Cheney and other conservative candidates and GOP party committees for the 2000 election cycle, and he hosted an April 2000 gala that raked in $21.3 million for the RNC as well. He donated hundreds of thousands more for BushCo in 2004, and raised several million more to help celebrate his old buddy Bush's second trip to the Inaugural Ball.
But Sam Fox has absolutely no foreign policy experience and no qualifications for the job of ambassador to Belgium (where, by the way, we do have significant U.S. missions to NATO and the European Union as well). But once again BushCo has shamelessly chosen to ignore the facts and to reward its wealthiest-1% friends and corporate profiteers with trophy jobs while jeopardizing our foreign policy, our security, and the success of our relationships overseas.
Okay, so maybe Fox is just another big-money GOP donor and old buddy of Bush's with no experience and other qualifications for the job, and now he's being handed a cushy job as ambassador to a small country where people don't hate us or blow things up. That's a bit sleazy, but hardly shocking -- people have been trading money for political patronage jobs every since the country was founded. So where's the problem?
You can practically see Bush standing in front of the cameras with Sam Fox, shaking his hand and telling him, "You're doing a heck of a job, Foxie." And that's the worst part of this sordid little story right there -- because the last job Foxie did for BushCo was one heckuva hit job.
Sam Fox was one of the guys lurking behind the scenes with big bankrolls and bad bargains back in 2004, when he and a few of his buddies put up the money for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign. According to campaign finance records, he kicked in $50,000 apiece to the Swifties and to the Progress For America GOP soft-money 527 groups (and that's just the part we know about).
In fact, Fox even gave the $50K to the SVBT after its claims had already been totally debunked by the MSM, just to keep the bogus GOP smear machine spinning away like a well-oiled top until the last votes were cast.
And if that's still not enough, Sam Fox is also a founding member of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund, raising millions of dollars to help keep Libby and his ex-boss Dick Cheney out of prison. The man has no scruples whatsoever, just stacks and stacks of money to spread around in order to ooze his way into the highest levels of the BushCo White House.
And now, if the Senate confirms his nomination today -- which one can only hope they're smart and sane enough not to do -- he's going to be fiddling away in Belgium while Rome burns at home.
Which is why having to call him "Ambassador Sam Fox" would be just all kinds of wrong.
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Campaign Finance | Graft | Patronage Jobs | Republicans
Video is up on the SFRC website now
Submitted by M. Loutre on 27 February 2007 - 7:45pm.
Video of this afternoon's ambassador-nomination hearing is up on the SFRC website:
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2007/hrg070227p.html
Click on 'Nominations', it opens up a RealPlayer-format streaming video window.
Kerry vs. Sam Fox segment starts around 1:33 in, he shifts into the SVBT questions around 1:51 after wearing down Fox's credibility on Belgium first.
Enjoy the show -- the Kerry-vs-SBVT smackdown is long overdue indeed.
Skillful prosecutor and very cool.
Submitted by Marjorie G (not verified) on 28 February 2007 - 12:48am.
Must be noted how all the more effective by the deft and respectful skewering, making Fox reveal that he doesn't know enough to be Ambassador. Kerry's expertise as diplomat, in finance, foreign relations produced interesting contrast to what Fox does not know. Waiting for mentoring by Karen Hughes?
Tart and dry were adjectives also used to describe Kerry's manner, and I would add a lightness, which made the anger he must feel about the SBVT turn the $50K contribution seem less personal and all the more a lapse of judgment, inapporpriate for an ambassador. Proven that the money was given in October long after the claims discredited, Fox defense of giving to 527s to offset the competition, Kerry asked if two wrongs make a right.
With $22 million overall damage by the Swifties, I just learned that $4 million was spent in Ohio that last week, alone. Add Blackwell, maybe the Democratic Party could have been a lot more helpful to the campaign. Calling McAwful off his trash talk tour to answer.
A very cool skewering.
Submitted by Marjorie G on 28 February 2007 - 1:01am.
Progressives who cry for bloodfest and bashing, take note. Must be noted how all the more effective by the deft and respectful skewering, making Fox reveal that he doesn't know enough to be Ambassador. Kerry's expertise as diplomat, in finance, foreign relations produced interesting contrast to what Fox does not know. Waiting for mentoring by Karen Hughes?
Tart and dry have been used to describe Kerry's manner, and I would add respect, which made the anger he must feel about the SBVT turn the $50K contribution seem less personal and all the more a lapse of judgment, inapporpriate for an ambassador.
Proven that the money was given in October long after the claims discredited, Fox defense of giving to 527s to offset the competition, Kerry asked if two wrongs make a right.
With $22 million overall damage by the Swifties, I just learned that $4 million was spent in Ohio that last week, alone. Add Blackwell, maybe the Democratic Party could have been a lot more helpful to the campaign. Calling McAwful off his trash talk tour to answer.
Just saw the whole
Submitted by Soylent Green (not verified) on 28 February 2007 - 11:25pm.
Just saw the whole thing.
John Kerry was calm and cool. He had integrity on his side.
But Mr. Fox was definitely sweating and his hands were all over the place. He couldn't even handle himself as an honest broker.
John Kerry was right in 04. It's about integrity, integrity and integrity.
Clearly Mr. Fox didn't get it and still doesn't get it.
And now for the play-by-play...
I was watching the hearings on streamed video just now, and I got to tell you, it was a beautiful piece of SFRC theatre. Kerry got Fox and played him like a cat with a mouse.
He started by drawing out the obvious fact that Fox had no friggin clue about anything he was supposed to know about foreign policy, anti-terrorism, or Belgium.
And then he took off the gloves, put on his glasses, and slowly, carefully pinned Fox down like a moth on cardboard on the whole SVBT /527 business until he all he could do was squirm, and squirm, and squirm.
Other senators watched raptly and kept yielding their time to Kerry until he was totally through with Fox and squished him like a bug. JK wasn't mad or blustery about it -- just cold, quiet, and firm, like the career prosecuting attorney he was back in the old days.
And then Coleman made a few necessary points about how this wasn't just a personal thing, it was very significant as to whether or not Fox had the integrity, character, and personal judgment for such an important posting.
And then Obama, who was presiding today, got in some very stern words to Fox for several minutes as well before he wrapped the session up for the day.
There is no friggin *way* anybody could dare vote to confirm that lying clueless rat bastid after this afternoon's performance.
It was one of the best half hours of political theatre I've seen in many years. As soon as the streaming video's up on Kerry's site, I'll come back here and post the URL so y'all can sit down and savor it too.
More popcorn, please! And a Coke!
[P.S. -- my buddy beachmom has her own killer diary about this up on dKos now too, with lots of extra details and embedded links to all the juicy bits for you hard-core fact wonks out there:] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/27/125733/060