Friday, February 4, 2011

Color me Shocked

An unqualified politically appointed "diplomat" has left our embassy in Luxembourg in a complete shambles.  Apparently U.S. and local employees, some of whom have probably worked there for decades, are described as demoralized and stressed.  Considering how easy-going the State Department types I've worked with in the past tend to be, that's saying a lot.

Apparently, Madam Ambassador Stroum terrorized embassy employees, wasted taxpayer money on searches for personal housing and staff that are commensurate with her station, or at least the station she believes she deserves, and spent thousands of taxpayer dollars in re-stocking the embassy liquor cabinet with booze from Europe when she should have been buying American.

Shocked, yes shocked, I am that a political appointee, who got the job by raising money for President Obama's 2008 campaign, would abuse her position to make her own life more luxurious while belittling the people who keep the wheels on.  I am also surprised that she did not fly Air Pelosi back and forth to the States, since she seems to be cut from the same cloth as the representative from Northern California. 

Luxembourg, along with the other Low Countries, have been good, loyal friends and allies since the end of the Second World War.  They deserve better than to have a political prima donna sent to be their conduit to the United States government.  But then, the Obama administration doesn't seem to have a problem pissing in the tea of our oldest and closest European ally, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

President Obama needs to remind all of his minions that they are employed to serve our nation, not to be serviced.  And Mrs. Stroum should repay the taxpayers for every penny we paid for her European junket.

3 comments:

Oz said...

Preach on brother!

Old NFO said...

Concur... The political appointment requirement this time seems to ONLY be about the amount of money raised, not any 'real' qualifications or anything important like that... sigh...

DaddyBear said...

I'd be shocked if this was a new phenomenon, but Joe Kennedy was our ambassador to Great Britain in the 1930's, and all he was qualified to do was smuggle booze and be a political hack.

Creative Commons License
DaddyBear's Den by DaddyBear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at daddybearden.blogspot.com.