Mark Green - Congressman turned Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate - was nominated by George Dubbya earlier this year to serve as our nation’s ambassador to Tanzania. Green, who spent some time in Africa doing volunteer work, seems like a pretty good choice for the position, at least by my standards, but apparently John Kerry has a problem with the nomination. Earlier today Kerry put a “hold” on the nomination, citing the fact that Green is a political appointee - not a career foreign service officer. Senator Kerry hasn’t officially commented on the hold, which effectively dooms the nomination barring some unforeseen miracle.

What’s interesting about the hold is that the previous ambassador to Tanzania was also a political appointee, so it’s not as if Green will be taking a spot that had previously been filled by a career foreign service officer. Obviously Green’s appointment was a reward by George Dubbya for all Green’s hard work as a member of the Republican Party, and to be honest, I don’t see any reason why his nomination should have been opposed (and I say that as a staunch Democrat). Though I may not agree with many (almost none, actually) of Mark Green’s political positions, his nomination is one that I can’t understand opposing - or killing, in the case of Senator Kerry’s hold.

I just can’t help but wonder if there’s another reason - one that’s not been made public - for Senator Kerry’s hold on Mark Green’s nomination.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under National Politics, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.