Obama Admin Defends Pick for Ambassador to Iraq From GOP Critics
EmailABC News’ Kirit Radia Reports: The Obama administration is standing by its man.
Yesterday GOP senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Sam Brownback issued statements opposing Ambassador Christopher Hill’s nomination to be the next US ambassador to Iraq.
McCain and Graham cited Hill’s lack of experience both in the Middle East and in counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism. Brownback said as much, adding that Hill had been "evasive and unprofessional" in his dealings with Congress. The senators’ opposition suggests one of them may even put a hold on his nomination.
Asked about the senators’ concerns, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stood squarely behind Hill.
"The president has extraordinary respect for his ability. I think he’s proven his ability to understand very complex political situations, to resolve those political situations. Obviously, Iraq is a very unique situation, and the president believes that Chris Hill is uniquely qualified to meet those challenges," Gibbs said.
The State Department echoed those remarks, saying Hill would consult with lawmakers ahead of his confirmation hearings.
"Ambassador Hill looks forward to confirmation hearings in which he can address the senators’ concerns and go into more detail about his record. He is ready for those hearings," State Department acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid told reporters.
"We have full confidence in Ambassador Hill. We feel that he is an excellent candidate," Duguid added.
Hill most recently served as the US envoy to the Six Party Talks, aimed at removing North Korea’s nuclear program. Though he was initially praised for making progress in the talks after Pyongyang tested a crude nuclear weapon in 2006, he was criticized late last year after North Korea reneged on a verbal commitment given to Hill during an October visit to the reclusive totalitarian country.
Hill made a name for himself as a negotiator when he was part of the US team that brokered the Dayton Accords, ending violence in Bosnia in the 1990s.
He has previously served as Ambassador to Poland, the Republic of Macedonia, and as special envoy to Kosovo.
CPAC: Romney Struggles to Convince Voters 
Obama Backs Off Birth Control Battle?
Just wondering how much this BUM has cheated the American people. TAX CHEATER.
Obama would of made an excellent IRS Agent for finding Democrat TAX CHEATERS>
Posted by: RAYN | March 13, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
Did Obama find another GOOD OLD BOY thats also a crook
Posted by: getty | March 13, 2009, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
Solid, legitimate, substantial credentials for the job. And here we have Sen. McSame being critical. The GOP should adopt Groucho Marx’s song from Horsefeathers:
“No matter what it is, I’m against it.”
Posted by: Howard Beale | March 13, 2009, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm
Rayn, I think you have identified a job that Obama might actually be qualified for. He would make a first class IRS agent who’s sole job would be to find tax cheats. All Obama would have to do is think about who he might appoint if he were president and voila, another tax cheat found.
Brilliant…
Posted by: James | March 13, 2009, 3:33 pm 3:33 pm
Someone ought to remind the angry old geezer, McCain, that he lost. On the other hand, he is probably trying to counter Limbaugh’s claim to being the head of the GOP. What a joke.
Posted by: EdDoc80 | March 13, 2009, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
Is this the same Christopher Hill that served under Donald Rumsfeld? The guy that tried to force New Zealand into supporting nuclear technology? That Christopher Hill?
Posted by: Jenny | March 13, 2009, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
Let the president do his job will you! He is the most experienced and the most qualified for the job. The American people have voted and you Reich-Wingers lost. Get used to it. Move on, get a life. He will appoint those he deems best suited for the post and if he needs any crap from right wingers he can squeeze your head! McCain is all puff and no substance. If the American people wanted his two cents they’d have elected him. Christopher Hill is a superb candidate for the job at hand.
Posted by: Rayne | March 13, 2009, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
Gee, with Obama’s stellar record on appointments, how could anyone question him?
LOL
Posted by: carl | March 13, 2009, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
Most brilliant administration EVER:
1. A do-over on the oath of office.
2. Tim Geithner.
3. Bill Richardson.
4. Tom Daschle.
5. Eric “Nation of Cowards” Holder.
6. Leon Panetta.
7. Arne “Cappuccino” Duncan.
8. Hilda Solis (OK, her husband has the tax liens).
9. Nancy Killefer.
10. Charles Freeman Jr.
11. Ron Kirk.
12. Adolfo Carrion.
13. Banning offshore oil again.
14. Letting Nancy Pelosi write the $787 billion “stimulus’ plan.
15. Relying on Tim Geithner to explain it.
16. It is a $13-a-week stimulus, or as his wife said of Bush’s plan: “You’re getting $600. What can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything. But maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month.”
17. Going to a press conference without a TelePrompTer. I… Uhh… Umm… Could you repeat the question?
18. Using a TelePrompTer at a press conference. Big boys don’t need training wheels.
19. “Good evening, everybody. Please be seated. Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly.” 1,228 words later he took his first question.
20. Going after Rush Limbaugh.
21. Going after Rick Santelli.
22. Going after Jim Cramer.
23. “Never waste a good crisis.”
24. Obama supporter Warren Buffett: “I don’t think anybody on December 7th would have said a ‘war is a terrible thing to waste, and therefore we’re going to try and ram through a whole bunch of things and — but we expect to — expect the other party to unite behind us on the — on the big problem.’ It’s just a mistake, I think.”
25. Writing a love letter to Vlad and Dmitry.
26. Putting Poland under the bus.
27. Putting Tibet under the bus.
28. Putting Israel under the bus.
29. Taking Cuba out from under the bus.
30. Having his tax cheat go after the tax cheats in Switzerland. Cognitive dissonance.
31. “Karzai has a bunker mentality.”
32. Iran has plans to Marine One helicopters.
33. “I won.”
34. BlackBerry singing in the middle of the night/ Take these golden secrets and learn to fly…
35. Obama: “If Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.” CEO: No. There will be more layoffs.
36. DVDs to Gordon Brown.
37. “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” Vegas convention bookings nosedive.
38. Wagyu.
39. Reset/overcharge button given to Russia.
40. Taking a 4-day holiday weekend before signing “emergency” legislation.
41. “I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement — the prescription drug plan — without a source of funding. And so I think it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word ’socialist’ around can’t say the same.”
42. Stiffing Chicago for nearly $2 million for that Election Night par-tay.
43. Caroline Kennedy.
44. Bombing Pakistan.
45. Sending the bust of Sir Winston Churchill back to the British.
46. Saying: “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history.”
47. A window is not a door.
48. Doctors must perform abortions.
49. Signing earmarks while denouncing them.
50. Adding signing statements while denouncing them.
51. Quadrupling the deficits, while denouncing them.
52. Missing the Gridiron Club dinner.
Posted by: Obama: 52 Mistakes in 52 Days | March 13, 2009, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Oh yeah, and old grandpa mccain was offended because Hill compared bush to st. reagan. Who the heck cares. Country first, right mccain?
Posted by: jd | March 13, 2009, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm
You failed to consider that many, many people find #s 5, 10, 13, 19-22, 28, 29, 33, to name a few, pretty good things.
But I stopped counting after #40, the one about taking vacations. This after Bush vacationed for a month and then let the 9/11 attacks happen.
You should totally send your writing to the Onion or the Daily Show…funny stuff.
Posted by: Hey moron | March 13, 2009, 5:53 pm 5:53 pm
Would somebody tell McBush that the election is over….and he will never be president as the American people rejected him not once, but twice. Please tell him to go to one of his many mansions and go to sleep. He’s done. No one’s listening to him.
Posted by: sngeorgia | March 13, 2009, 6:52 pm 6:52 pm
“Let the president do his job will you! He is the most experienced and the most qualified for the job.”
Oh yeah, Obama had a long, documented track record of successful accomplishments before taking office.
NOT!
Posted by: Stacey | March 13, 2009, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
This Chris Hill is NOT the same as the one who worked for Rumsfeld, if indeed a Chris Hill did work for Rummy. This one’s been with State forever. And from my perspective here in Iraq, and knowing him in Kosovo and Macedonia, he’s fully qualified for the post. Certainly more than our present GWOT guy, Crocker, who did such a bang up job in his last post in Pakistan that it is a settled, growing democracy, right? You wingers need to get a grip, chill and let the chips fall for at least 100 days. For eight years, criticism of a sitting President was tantamount to Treason, right? So why is it all of a sudden acceptable now?
Posted by: Ryan Crocker | March 14, 2009, 8:04 pm 8:04 pm
Criticism was not ‘tantamount to Treason’…working against our country during a time of war, threatening to cut off support of our troops on battlefield, wishing we’d lose, burning a U.S. GI in effigy during a protest on the Left Coast, making up atrocity stories, feeling sorry for our enemies…now that I’d say is treasonous.
Besides, if dissent was Patriotic for the last 8 years, it’s still Patriotic now.
Posted by: RR GOP | March 14, 2009, 9:19 pm 9:19 pm
OUT: Sticking it to the Man.
IN: Getting the Man re-elected.
Posted by: Brave New World | March 16, 2009, 9:36 am 9:36 am