Pay for Play? Sure Looks Like It – Part . . . Uh, I Lost Count
It seems as if the hacker “Guccifer 2.0” released a bunch of new DNC-related documents the other day. A “bunch”, as in “600+MB worth”.
There was at least one interesting bit of info in the info. Wanna guess how many of the DNC’s 53 top fundraisers during the 2008 campaign cycle received high-level (e.g., Ambassador-level or similar) appointments with the Federal government? Well, here ya go:
By my count, that’s 23 of 53 individuals – or roughly 43.4%. Since two individuals were appointed to two different high Federal offices, that actually underplays the situation somewhat.
Oh, and it doesn’t include one individual who apparently received a very high level political appointment with the state of California.
“Nothing to see here, people. Move along now. Let’s go.”
Category: Politics
Anyone who has ever had to deal with political appointees knows that this is common from both the parties. If daddy’s little princess just graduated and needs a resume bump, just toss a six figure donation to someone important and she’ll have a job with a cool title at USAID in no time.
Different but related issue, Bobo.
These were major fundraisers, not “daddy’s little princess”. Plus, the jobs above aren’t “make-work” political appointee jobs that have little real impact.
Twenty of the jobs here were US Ambassadors. Those are the public face of the US to a foreign nation.
One was FCC Chair. Another was an Undersecretary at Commerce. A third was Deputy AG. A fourth was an Undersecretary of State. The fifth was on an Advisory Committee for Trade Policy.
Those are all key appointive jobs within the US Government. All of those have daily real-world impact.
They should not be for sale. Yes, I understand political parties often reward party loyalty. But approaching 10% of ambassador positions handed out to major fundraisers, including those to the UN and two key allies (UK, Japan)? That to me seems a bit excessive – and detrimental to the ability of State to do its freaking job.
It might explain, at least partially, why US foreign policy has devolved into a total cluster over the last nearly 7 2/3 years.
I believe the current Administration has had the highest percentage of non-career Ambassadors ever. Most administrations try to keep it to a little less then 1/3, I think its been closer to 40-45% the last few years.
If Trump wins, I’ll be really interested in seeing a similar chart in a few years. One of the intriguing things about a possible Trump Presidency for me is how political appointment play out given his funding model which has fewer large donors, as well as relations with Congress given that he really isn’t the head of his part.
And we wonder why our government is so screwed up? what kind of qualifications do ANY of these a.h.’s have…? oops forgot, they have the same quals as OBOZO! NONE! And we have about 40% of this country so frigging STUPID, they want to vote for the hilldabitch and keep this fiasco going!! Talk about INSANITY!!
But Colin Powell….
It doesn’t matter what they do, as long as they have “Democrat” following their name, they are bullet proof. Hillary Clinton talks of the Republican “war on woman”, and every woman who makes an accusation of sexual assault should be believed, unless that accusation is against Bill Clinton. They complain that the mean white Rwlublicans are not paying their “fair share” of taxes, but every other week Al Sharpton has a private audience with President Obama, where we can only speculate that they are working on a payment plan for Sharpton’s back taxes. Democrats are up in arms that Mike Pence will not call David Duke “deplorable”, but Hillary Clinton posts a video in tribute to KKK member Robert Byrd on the State Department website.
Hack, you really need to stop making sense and using facts. Just get in line and assimilate. It’ll only hurt a little at first
Payment plan my ass…..obozo will grant the asshole immunity when he leaves orfice! Dullton will not pay one thin dime!
Does anybody know the paygrade for ambassador’s?
I think after a short time their investment would be recovered. Corrupt to core.
A little dated, but probably still in the same ball park.
http://work.chron.com/much-ambassadors-paid-7707.html
Not bad I bet you get a nice retirement package also.
Its the same system that other civil government employees get. Unless the person has been in and out of government on multiple occasions it won’t really add up to much.
Plus, there’s that pesky minimum service requirement to qualify for a Federal pension. Wikipedia says that a minimum of 5 years of credible service is required to be eligible for ANY Federal annuity (disability presumably excluded) due to civilian service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Employees_Retirement_System#Eligibility_for_FERS
It’s not corruption if a democrat does it.
In fact, the press doesn’t even report it as it is a non-event.
Man you guys just don’t understand how this works do you?
When a democrat makes a donation and receives something in return it’s merely a serendipitous moment of happenstance. All democrats have nothing but pure motivation with their donations and their resulting appointments.
On the other hand all republicans are thieving members of the robber baron class and anything they do is the result of their personal greed and innate corruption of character.
Once you understand this the media, the statements from the DNC and the White House all make far more sense.
/sarc
VOV, I can’t find any sarc in that post.
Ditto here.
The left minded ignoramuses are continuing to call anything investigative about HRC witch hunts, while throwing parties because the NY DA is now going to investigate the Trump Foundation for a picture of himself he bought with Foundation money. JHC, will the stupidity ever stop? HRC donors to the ClintonCrimeFoundation are also killers of gays, but, I guess her support of women and gays only apply to US citizens when there is money to be made…#SAF
Interesting. So the going rate for the Bahamas is $2 million? Strictly in the interest of effective foreign policy, I can totally see myself setting up a diplomatic outpost poolside at Atlantis in Nassau. Call it the Jimmy Buffett Annex…
PH2, this makes Rod Blagojevich look like a used car salesman when he tried to sell 0bama’s Senate seat.