Just to add to what my colleague, Elana Schor had earlier on Chris Hill: At his press briefing today, Robert Gibbs stood behind Chris Hill as the President’s choice to be the next Ambassador to Iraq. So for the moment at least, there’s no backing down to the McCain-Graham assault on Hill as being unready for Iraq. Hill is one of the most accomplished career diplomats at State but his assignments have all been European and Asian. He speaks Polish and Serbo-Croatian, according to the State Department web site.
But here’s something interesting. McCain and Graham had no problem voting for Hill to be come George W. Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs even thought his previous experience was overwhelmingly European with one tour in Seoul. In general the country’s supported the idea that senior State Department officials can move around the world and not have to prove their credentials each time they’re assigned to a new region. McCain and Graham are imposing a new standard that seems odd. It’s not wildly irrational to want an Iraq ambassador with Mideast experience but it’s a bar that I’ve never heard Senators ask of any other career diplomat before. Perhaps TPM readers can think of other examples where Graham and McCain had no qualms about supporting a nominee for a key diplomatic post who had no previous experience in the region?
