Thursday, May 05, 2005

Dems' UN nominee broke law, yet confirmed; Bolton is mean, yet to be confirmed!

Former Clinton UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke apparently broke the law, or at the very least, had serious ethical violations when his nomination was before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He received a slap-on-the-wrist fine of $5,000 and a plea on a civil count.

What did he do? Well, the full story is here, but here's an excerpt that summarizes his actions:
Upon leaving public service, Holbrooke became an instant millionaire executive with Credit Suisse First Boston. According to an official with intimate knowledge of the investigation, private citizen Holbrooke would call people he knew on staffs of various embassies—people who still likely saw him as their boss—to set up meetings with foreign officials, and he allegedly used former employees to provide him with office space and drivers.

Holbrooke’s defense was shaky, at best. He claimed that because he was also the special envoy to Bosnia, all his trips and various uses of government property were solely to benefit the U.S. government. Most of the travel, however, was underwritten by CSFB, not the U.S. taxpayer.
Did the GOP sink his nomination? Nope.

Fast forward to today. Dems are much less "diplomatic", pardon the pun. Holbrooke breaks laws, gets confirmed by all Democrats and most Republicans. John Bolton might be mean to subordinates (like every liberal legislator), and by gosh, he's not fit for the office! After eight years of Clinton moral turpitude, now character finally matters to these people!

Welcome to the game, guys! Better late than never, huh?