Thursday, May 22, 2008

Same as it ever was

Selection of the George Bush diplomatic corps: a case study --

Announcement today:

The President intends to nominate David F. Girard-diCarlo, of Pennsylvania, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Austria. Mr. Girard-diCarlo currently serves as Chairman of Blank Rome, LLP.

From that law firm bio --

In 1994, he was treasurer of the Ridge for Governor Committee and, after the election, was chairman of the Governor-Elect’s Transition Team. He also served as Pennsylvania State Chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2000 Campaign and co-chairman of the Host Committee for the 2000 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia. He was the Pennsylvania State Finance Chairman for the Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign and co-chairman of the overall Pennsylvania Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign. He has also served as chairman of Senator Rick Santorum's Federal Judicial Nominating Commission in 2005 and 2006.

That last gig -- putting him in charge of ensuring loony judges got appointed to federal positions -- forms a little bit of evidence that Bush has reserved some European ambassador slots for people who help get him activist conservative judges onto the bench; witness the career of C. Boyden Gray who played a similar role (at the Supreme Court level) for Bush.

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