Wednesday, September 13, 2006

How important is Uruguay?

Important enough to have the position of US Ambassador to Uruguay sold to the highest bidder, in the manner of how George Bush fills all prestige or cushy diplomatic posts, such as the recent example of Barbados. But definitely not for the more distant example of São Tomé and Príncipe, cursed to get an actual qualifed State Department career officer (something that Marty Peretz fails to understand when he ridicules Bush critic Joe Wilson for having held that post). Anyway, here's the dude who's off to Montevideo:

The President intends to nominate Frank Baxter, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. Most recently, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jeffries and Company, an investment banking firm. Previously in his career, he served as a Director of the Securities Industry Association and also as a Director of the National Association of Securities Dealers.

The Orange County Register has a nice table of where he stands in the list of California Republican donors: $850,000 in donations for the 2003-04 cycle, enough to get to #39 on the list (peripheral mention of unrelated affair: Ron Burkle is #43). It's quite possible that he does not even speak Spanish.

No comments: