Effective Inauguration Day, all politically appointed ambassadors are out of their jobs.
Don’t cry for the snowflakes, as all of them got their position as a ‘thank you’ for generous donations.
From New York Times:
“President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition staff has issued a blanket edict requiring politically appointed ambassadors to leave their overseas posts by Inauguration Day, according to several American diplomats familiar with the plan, breaking with decades of precedent by declining to provide even the briefest of grace periods.
The mandate — issued “without exceptions,” according to a terse State Department cable sent on Dec. 23, diplomats who saw it said — threatens to leave the United States without Senate-confirmed envoys for months in critical nations like Germany, Canada and Britain. In the past, administrations of both parties have often granted extensions on a case-by-case basis to allow a handful of ambassadors, particularly those with school-age children, to remain in place for weeks or months.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, has taken a hard line against leaving any of President Obama’s political appointees in place as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 with a mission of dismantling many of his predecessor’s signature foreign and domestic policy achievements. “Political” ambassadors, many of them major donors who are nominated by virtue of close ties with the president, almost always leave at the end of his term; ambassadors who are career diplomats often remain in their posts.”
Naturally, it is difficult to find accommodation if you are to pay out of your pocket and you don’t feel like doing it. However, the politically appointed diplomats should have known that their position will be terminated once Trump was elected president. Therefore they had a few months to prepare contingency plans regarding school and dwelling for their families.
Instead, they are whining and complaining:
“In Costa Rica, Ambassador Stafford Fitzgerald Haney is hunting for a house or an apartment as his family — which includes four school-age children and his wife, who has been battling breast cancer — struggles to figure out how to avoid a move back to the United States with five months left in the school year, according to the diplomats.
In the Czech Republic, they said, Ambassador Andrew H. 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. In Brussels and Geneva, Denise Bauer, the United States ambassador to Belgium, and Pamela Hamamoto, the permanent representative to the United Nations, are both trying to find a way to keep daughters from having to move just months before their high school graduation.”
In case you wanted to know how much does it cost to secure a position in diplomacy, below is a list depicting the contribution to DNC and the political reward. Some of the names have been replaced by others, but the end result is the same.
#1 Matthew Berzun … Ambassador to UK: he ‘raised’ over 3.5 millions for DNC
#2 Julius Genachowski … Former chairman to FCC: he raised over 3.4 millions for DNC
#3 Frank Sanchez…. Under secretary of commerce
#8 Kirk Wagner… Ambassador to Singapore: raised over 2.3 millions
#9 Alan Solomont … Ambassador to Spain
#11 John Roos… Ambassador to Japan
#12 Nicole Avant… Ambassador to Bahamas
#13 Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe … Ambassador to the UN
#16 Steve Westly – CFO of California
#17 Don Beyer – Ambassador to Switzerland
#21 Don Gips – Ambassador to South Africa
#22 Howard Gutman – Ambassador to Belgium
#24 Cynthia Stroum – Ambassador to Luxembourg
#27 Mark Gilbert – Ambassador to New Zealand
#31 Norm Eisen – Ambassador to Czech Republic
#37 Bruce Oreck – Ambassador to Finland- raised only a little bit over 1.3 millions
#43 Tony West – deputy Attorney General
#45 Bill Kennard – Ambassador to EU
The whole article and the list of donors to DNC can be found on ZeroHedge.com
From the article:
“It appears Richard M. Lobo’s wife, Caren Lobo, donated $716,000 to DNC. Obama then nominated Richard Lobo for Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau.
From BBG.gov:
Richard Lobo was nominated by President Obama to be Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau in February, 2010, and was confirmed to the post by the Senate in September of that year.
Pamela Hamamoto paid DNC $605,000 then became the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva.
Jane Hartley paid DNC $605,000 and then was nominated by Obama to serve concurrently as the U.S. Ambassador to the French Republic and the Principality of Monaco.
Crystal Nix-Hines paid DNC $600,000 and then was nominated by President Obama to the position of United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization with the rank of Ambassador.”
Is it fair what Trump is doing? Maybe not if he is to follow a precedent. But he is a business man and in business you lose your job in a blink of an eye. Most of the time you are given five minutes to vacate your desk and are escorted by security or HR personnel out of the building.
Again, all these politically appointed guys knew well in advance what is to come and should have prepared their exit plan accordingly.
Bear in mind that career diplomats are still in their respective positions. At least for the time being.