The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.
The clean slate will open up prime opportunities for the president-elect to reward political supporters with posts in London, Paris, Tokyo and the like. The notice to diplomatic posts was issued this week.
Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush’s ambassadorial appointees.
Most ambassadors, of course, are foreign service officers, but often the posts involving the most important bilateral relations (such as with Great Britain, Japan and India) or desirable locales (such as the Bahamas) are given to close friends and well-heeled contributors of the president.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/12/obama-gives-political-ambassad.html
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified before the House Intelligence Committee. House Democrats have decided to take their secret impeachment proceedings out of the bunker and into the open for all to see. And if you don’t know this already, the Democrats’ reasoning to hold this circus is even shoddier and more pathetic than the Russian collusion hoax. The allegation is that in July, President Trump threatened to withhold military aid unless Ukraine opened a corruption investigation into Hunter Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, who was sitting on the board of an energy company making $50,000 a month despite having zero experience in this field of work. The quid pro quo allegation is all based on second-hand information.
Yet, today, it was more of a therapy session for Yovanovitch. Pretty much she was against Trump’s Ukraine policy, she used a congressional hearing to voice that, and in the process received the praise from Democrats for coming forward, as if she were some Rosa Parks figure. Folks, she was fired by Trump because that’s what he can do. You’d think that Trump dismissed her because she stumbled upon some felonious activity. Wrong. It was an absurdly long hearing for a career State Department employee who was there to pretty much explain the not so unprecedented reasons for her dismissal. Trump said bad things about her on Twitter. Yep. We have a First Amendment, and this was not an act of intimidating a witness. It’s not unusual for a new administration to fire ambassadors. They don’t need a reason; they serve at the president’s pleasure. Former President Barack Obama slaughtered scores of Bush appointees, brutally terminating their employment. It was a red wedding. The Washington Times’ Larry O’Connor dredged up this bit of history (via WaPo):
The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.
The clean slate will open up prime opportunities for the president-elect to reward political supporters with posts in London, Paris, Tokyo and the like. The notice to diplomatic posts was issued this week.
Political ambassadors sometimes are permitted to stay on briefly during a new administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in retaining any of Bush’s ambassadorial appointees.
Yeah, president’s firing ambassadors is totally unheard of—says the post-2016 liberal media. It’s a witch hunt. It’s a prolonged coup attempt. It has to be stopped.