Posted on 02/04/2011 2:10:33 PM PST by jazusamo
An Obama fundraiser awarded a cushy European ambassadorship after bundling more than half a million dollars for his presidential campaign ran her U.S. embassy like a hostile dictator, spent government funds on booze and bullied staff.
Here comes the good part. State Department leadership (that includes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) knew all about it but took no action, presumably because the wealthy donor—a Seattle philanthropist named Cynthia Stroum—is untouchable. At least that’s what an internal State Department investigation seems to indicate.
Made public this week, a scathing report of the probe says that during her year-long tenure as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg Stroum brought the embassy “to a state of dysfunction” with her “confrontational management style” and an “absence of a sense of direction.” Things got so out of control that career staffers requested transfers to less than desirable locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stroum was seen by most employees as "aggressive, bullying, hostile and intimidating," according to investigators, who recommended that Uncle Sam deploy medical professionals to Luxembourg to treat high stress levels among embassy employees. Stroum also did unscrupulous things like spend $3,400 on alcohol, even though it’s against regulations.
In short, Obama’s cherished money lady left the otherwise quaint embassy in the tiny European country a disaster. She quit abruptly a few weeks ago because the inspector general’s report—prepared last fall—was becoming public. The State Department has made no official announcement and clearly prefers to pretend the scandal never happened.
It appears that those who donate enough money to the right politician can get away with anything at the agency responsible for America’s international relations. At least that’s what its internal watchdog has concluded, that Stroum’s behavior is not unique among “non-career ambassadors” (wealthy donors rewarded with plum foreign posts) but routinely tolerated by State Department leadership.
14 trips in 11 months. Yep, she’s an Obamaite, all right.
I loved the comment about staff members volunteering for duty in Baghdad to get away from her.
Maybe this is a new sub-set of “Smart Politics” called “Diva Politics”.
“Obama is an empty suit.
Hillary! is an empty pantsuit.”
Not to quibble, but BOTH are pantloads.
LOL! I thought right off that more people know than her “hairdresser.”
There has to be truth to the allegations to separate old time staff from that posting to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Let’s get a professional opinion.
My goodness, we had Joe Kennedy running our embassy in UK ~ and one does wonder at his contribution to liquor lore.
General Patton is revered as a godlike being of divine proportions.
Heck, Joe probably had the staff making moonshine in the basement of the embassy on a profit sharing plan. :-)
My son visited Luxembourg when he was stationed in Germany, said he enjoyed it very much.
There, I fixed it.
BUT, did he visit the Embassy?
Ha! I doubt it and this was many years ago. I’m pretty sure he was more interested in their Stout, or something.
Obama is so bad that in 12 we will win all but the ‘safe’ Libnatic Districts.
At least they have their own "language", though in bordering areas of Germany, it's just considered a dialect of German. (German is a second language of many speakers of Austrian, as well.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourgish_language
Luxembourgish is a German dialect, similar to Alsatian, Romansh is a Romance language spoken by a tiny minority of Swiss and is closer to French than any other major language.
BTW, my unit's Roman Catholic chaplain in Germany, who spent the War in Dachau for resistance to Nazis, had met Patton personally and had a very high opinion of him.
I wouldn't, even with Laz's.
She thought she was somebody
The essence lingers ~ and Europeans have been allowed to move around on their own for quite some time now.
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