“I’ve played their checkers, I’ve gotten out of their finger trap so….uh- pretty confident.” That was how The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart mocked the nomination hearing for former Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) to serve as US ambassador to China, after Baucus said that he was “no real expert on China.”
Baucus was featured in a segment titled “Diplomat Buyers Club,” which highlighted a string of bad nomination hearings for Obama’s ambassadors- most of whom are large fundraisers for the president.
Stewart added:
To be fair to Baucus, he did not raise money for the preisdent. He actually stepped down from the senate so the Democratic Governor of Montana could appoint his replacement, making it more likely Democrats retain the Senate…you know- the non financial corruption.”
(Luckily for Montana, Ambassador McFaul gets a plug for being appointed based on his qualifications. McFaul is a Montana native.)
Full video below.
Ambassador Baucus & @GovernorBullock made @TheDailyShow last night! http://t.co/PtBbFpUVRW #MTsen #MTpol #MTnews #NonFinancialCorruption
— Bob Brigham (@BobBrigham) February 13, 2014
Now, for the liberals on the Montana Politics Twitterfeed (#MTPol) who say, “this corruption happens all the time”- know this: “Obama far outpaces predecessors in appointing donors to foreign posts”
But a look back at how Obama’s appointments stack up to those of his predecessors shows it’s not just business as usual — if anything, the current president is using diplomatic gigs to reward bundlers and contributors seemingly more than ever.
The American Foreign Service Association, which tracks ambassadorial appointments, has found that in Obama’s second term, more than 53 percent of these appointments were political. Less than half have come from the career Foreign Service pool.
Historically, less than a third of these appointments have been political in nature. Under former President Bill Clinton, 28 percent were political; under former President George W. Bush, that number was 30 percent.
Read the full story at FoxNews.com by clicking here.