Sunday, February 22, 2009
Obama To Appoint "The Vacuum Cleaner" To Plum Ambassadorship
Ah, hope and change.
Near silence from the American mainstream media, but this news item from the Brits about Obama appointing one of his key fundraisers as Ambassador to Great Britain:
Barack Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism row after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London.
The selection of Mr Susman, a lawyer and banker from the president's hometown of Chicago, rather than an experienced diplomat, raises new questions about Mr Obama's commitment to the special relationship with Britain.
American commentators denounced the selection of a rich friend to the plumb post, regarded as one of the most prestigious in the president's gift, as worthy of a "banana republic". They said it was proof that Mr Obama has turned his back on his campaign pledge to end politics as usual....
Mr Susman's reputation for hoovering large amounts of cash from deep pockets saw him nicknamed "the vacuum cleaner" when he raised more than $240million for John Kerry's White House bid in 2004.
He was one of Mr Obama's biggest campaign cash "bundlers", fundraisers who collect contributions from hundreds of others. He also gave $300,000 to the president's inauguration fund.
More on Susman, a Kennedy crony, from the Brits:
Mr Susman, 71, is now tipped to occupy the grand surroundings of Winfield House, the US ambassador's residence in London which occupies a 12 acre site on the edge of Regent's Park.
He is no stranger to luxury accommodation. He and his wife Margie own a grand mansion on Chicago's exclusive Gold Coast, which in the late 1980s was the second most affluent neighbourhood in the US after Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The couple own another property in the millionaire's playground of Nantucket, bought in 1990 for $4.6m, just up the road from the holiday home of John Kerry, and a short boat ride from the Kennedy family compound at Hyannisport.
That proximity to family patriarch Ted Kennedy is no accident. Mr Susman's entree into Democratic presidential politics came when he raised cash for Senator Kennedy's 1980 challenge of Jimmy Carter for the party's nomination.
Who's next for an ambassadorship? Tony Rezko? |
