Wow! Democrats support a Republican as the next UN ambassador--of course, he's one of the few members of congress who voted in the negative for the ouster of Saddam Hussein. He sounds as wimpy as his liberal friends:
50 House members promote Leach for ambassador
By JANE NORMAN
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
December 5, 2006
Washington, D.C. – A Democratic congressman said today he will continue to push for Republican Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa to be named as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Leach, of Iowa City, was defeated in his re-election bid on Nov. 7. The current ambassador, John Bolton, resigned on Monday in the face of intense opposition from Senate Democrats and President Bush now must pick a new nominee.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said that 50 members of the House have signed a letter written by him and Rep. Jim Walsh, R-N.Y., advocating Leach to replace Bolton.
The letter will be delivered to the White House on Friday.
“Jim Leach is the most skilled, most qualified person for the job,” Blumenauer said in a statement. “I have worked closely with Jim and I know he’s the best person to help make the United Nations more effective at the things that matter.”
Leach in an interview last week said he doubted he would be chosen by the president. Leach was one of the few Republicans to vote against military action in Iraq and has called it the greatest foreign policy blunder in U.S. history.
Among members of the Iowa delegation in the House, Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Des Moines Democrat, Rep. Tom Latham, a Republican from Alexander, and incoming Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Mount Vernon Democrat, have signed on to the letter. Loebsack defeated Leach. In the letter, members of Congress say that Leach’s nomination would be “a strong demonstration of a renewed bipartisan foreign policy and show a real commitment to the best tradition of United States diplomacy.”
They said Leach is known as “thoughtful, dignified and principled," and “would likely be confirmed unanimously.”
Leach is a senior member of the International Relations Committee and the chairman of the subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. He served in the 1990s as chairman of the House Banking Committee. Prior to his election to Congress, Leach was a foreign service officer who served at the United Nations under former President Bush when Bush was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. |
