Obama’s bundlers occupy dozens of key positions
Barack Obama has long decried the corrupting influence of money in politics. As a candidate, he ran against lobbyists and the pay-for-play culture of Washington. As president, he has continued to hammer the theme, most recently in his impassioned attacks on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.
Given this, it’s a little surprising to learn that Obama has not only embraced the sordid money-driven culture of DC, but actually outdone his predecessors. An analysis by the American Foreign Service Association, for example, found that Obama has stuffed the diplomatic corps with more political appointees (i.e., cronies) than any president in the past 40 years. Only a year into the administration, close of half of the president’s biggest donors already have federal jobs.
Below is a list of Obama campaign bundlers and the taxpayer-funded positions they’ve received:
The Big Changers’ Club ($500,000+)
Avant, Nicole (Los Angeles, CA)
Position: Ambassador to the Bahamas
Barzun, Matthew (Louisville, KY)
Position: Ambassador to Sweden
Beyer, Don (Alexandria, VA)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Bleich, Jeff (Piedmont, CA)
Position: Ambassador to Australia
Danzig, Richard (Washington, DC)
Position: Member, Defense Policy Board
Donahoe, Eileen Chamberlain (Washington, DC)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to UN Human Rights Council
Eacho, William (Bethesda, MD)
Position: Ambassador to Austria
Forester, Christine (San Diego, CA)
Position: Member, Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities
Genachowski, Julius (Washington, DC)
Position: FCC Chairman
Gips, Don (Boulder, CO)
Position: Ambassador to South Africa
Gutman, Howard (Washington, DC)
Position: Ambassador to Belgium
Harris, Scott (Washington, DC)
Position: General Counsel, Department of Energy
Katz, Allan (Tallahassee, FL)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to Portugal
Kennard, William (Washington, DC)
Position: Ambassador to the European Union
Oreck, Bruce (Boulder, CO)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to Finland
Overton, Spencer (Chevy Chase, MD)
Position: Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy
Perrelli, Tom (Arlington, VA)
Position: Assistant Attorney General
Rivkin, Charlie (Los Angeles, CA)
Position: Ambassador to France and Monaco
Roos, John (Hillsborough, CA)
Position: Ambassador to Japan
Sanchez, Frank (Tampa, FL)
Position: Undersecretary of International Trade
Solomont, Alan (Boston, MA)
Position: Ambassador to Spain
Spinner, Steve (Menlo Park, CA)
Position: Loan Programs Advisor, Department of Energy
Stroum, Cynthia (Seattle, WA)
Position: Ambassador to Luxembourg
West, Tony (Oakland, CA)
Position: Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division
(9 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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At least they haven’t cost billions of dollars, thousands of american lives and close to a million iraki lives. ie, Cheney, Halliburton, Blackwater, Worley Parsons, Fluor, and countless companies in Australia and the United Kingdom. Our tax dollars and the lives of our soldiers making foreigners filthy richer!!!!
Hypocrites!!
BUNDLERS, BUNDLERS AND MORE BUNDLERS.
“An analysis by the American Foreign Service Association, for example, found that Obama has stuffed the diplomatic corps with more political appointees (i.e., cronies) than any president in the past 40 years. Only a year into the administration, close of half of the president’s biggest donors already have federal jobs.”
This is an excellent article. Had not seen it posted anywhere else. Of course it is also very depressing..So much for “Hope and Change”.
Notable about Howard Gutman, newly appointed Ambassador to Belgium: When the first spell of the sliming of the Palin family took place, then-candidate Obama promised that anyone from his campaign who participated in such stuff would be banished from his campaign.
Three days later, Howard Gutman, a co-chair of the Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee (and, coincidentally, a former attorney for a member of the Weather Underground) said the following about Sarah Palin in an interview on Laura Ingraham’s nationwide radio program, as noted by ABC’s Jake Tapper’s Political Punch:
Was Gutman fired from the campaign, as Obama promised? Nope. Gutman was also a bundler for the campaign, hauling in six figures in donations for BHO. And despite the fact that he mouthed off in violation of the order of his boss, he was given an ambassadorship.
Think about that.
Whoop Tee Do! Everyone in his administration I would hope donated to his camapaign. This is nothing new. And bundlers bundle everyday Americans donations. Are they qualified to do the job. That is what matters. If they are not then this argument can be made. Oh and when asked the President didn’t deny this back in January of 2009.
I was promised change.
This is change. None of these people were getting rich off of the last administration.
Noe of these people were, but there were plenty of Bush’s friends and oil buddies who were making BILLIONS!
It’s funny to think we will never hear any stories in the Obama biography about chopping down cherry trees or not being able to lie. I’m searching for something Obama has said that wasn’t a lie.
Do any of these ambassadors even speak the local language? What a disservice to the people of the United States.
Ambassador to the Bahamas? Sweet! Wonder what THAT cost?
$500,000
The pages are of different donation amounts.
It cost the same about it cost during the last administration.
“It cost the same about it cost during the last administration.”
Is that even English?
Should be called “BUNGLERS”
This is newsworthy because these appointments run precisely against the promises HopenChange made when he was on the campaign trail.
He promised he wouldn’t appoint or hire lobbyists in his administration, he promised he wouldn’t appoint bundlers to key positions.
Instead of holding to his promise to keep bundlers out of his administration he has broken his promise and done just that. HopenChange has beoome MoreoftheSame.
Limbaugh opens his show today (played on Armed Forces Radio in Afghanistan) by saying that Obama is like Hitler because they both believe in the concept of the Big Lie.
Limbaugh is reading extensively from Mein Kampf and saying repeatedly that Obama is Hitler.
This is clearly outside the confines of valid free speech.
This is shouting ‘Fire’ in a crowded theater. This is talk-bomber terrorism.
I demand the FCC put an end to this.
You lie, chipshirley.
Limbaugh never said “Obama is Hitler” or implied it. He compared the tactics of The Big Lie as Hitler wrote about it in Mein Kampf and way that Obama and Biden and their minions in and out of the administration were engaging in revisionist history on a massive scale.
You know that Biden especially has been serving up more whoppers than Burger King — or are you under the impression that the Obama Admin has any claim on the success of the surge in Iraq?