We mentioned earlier this morning that the AP got a little ahead of itself in reporting that Chris Hill’s chances of getting confirmed as ambassador to Baghdad were “dimming” thanks to opposition from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has just released a statement declaring in no uncertain terms that Hill’s right on track:
Chris Hill is a strong, skilled and effective negotiator and an accomplished career foreign service officer who demonstrated his significant expertise in some of the most protracted and complex diplomatic challenges in the world, including those in North Korea and Bosnia. Hill is precisely the kind of diplomat America needs in the Middle East and Iraq, where a long-term resolution must be achieved politically and diplomatically, not militarily. I look forward to confirming him as quickly as possible.
Late Update: A potent takedown of Hill’s conservative critics is just out from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA), who asserts that Hill’s effectiveness during the North Korea nuclear talks was “hamstrung by in-fighting among senior members of the Bush administration”:
I have every confidence that Ambassador Hill is the right person to represent the United States in Baghdad. By nominating Ambassador Hill to serve in Bagdad, President Obama has chosen one of our very best to help bring lasting peace to Iraq. I look forward to his confirmation hearings, and am confident that those of my colleagues who may not yet be familiar with his service to the nation will be as impressed by his skill and dedication as I have been.
Some of my colleagues, frustrated by North Korea’s dogged pursuit of nuclear weapons, have implied that Ambassador Hill is somehow responsible for the fact that North Korea exploded a nuclear device on President Bush’s watch. But the responsibility for that lies first and foremost with North Korea and second with President Bush and his senior advisers, who did not empower Ambassador Hill to engage in direct talks with Pyongyang until after the North had withdrawn from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, exported nuclear technology to Syria, and tested a nuclear bomb. In fact, had Ambassador Hill not been hamstrung by in-fighting among senior members of the Bush Administration, President Obama might not have inherited such a dangerous problem on the Korean Peninsula.
There are limits to what any one person can do in the realm of foreign affairs, but individual talent still matters. Hill has it in abundance.
