Swiftboat funder up for Ambassadorship

By Lee Russ

Thursday, March 01, 2007 at 12:52 PM

Keeping up with a fine tradition of using Ambassadorships to reward cronies, scoundrels, and others unworthy of representing the U.S. abroad, we get this from Bob Geiger's blog:

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 ... It should be an interesting afternoon in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as hearings begin to consider Sam Fox as George W. Bush's nominee to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.

While the White House lauds Fox's qualifications for the role, it's obvious from a tiny bit of searching that Fox's primary qualification is that he is a big rainmaker for the Republican party with a healthy portfolio of donations over the years -- this is a guy who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bush, Dick Cheney, the Republican National Committee and every GOP candidate you can shake a stick at.

But what's especially interesting is that if you really look under the hood of where this guy's political heart is at, you find that in late 2004 he gave $50,000 to no less solid citizens than the Swift Boat Liars who made it their mission to discredit a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran in John Kerry. ... And he made this donation after the Swift Boaters had been entirely discredited.

What should make this hearing even more profound today is that sitting on the panel questioning Fox, will be Senator Jim Webb -- who is a Vietnam Veteran -- and one.... John F. Kerry.

The blog has graphics showing the donation as provided by PoliticalMoneyLine.Com and by the Center for Public Integrity.