DoS Conservative,

… and the Deputy Chief of Mission usually runs the embassy.

I thought the DCM was the Station Chief.

No, the DCM is not the Station Chief. The Station Chief is the top CIA representative at an embassy and is not part of the diplomatic chain of command other than reporting to the Ambassador and/or DCM as an adviser on intelligence in the host nation.

Comparing the embassy staffing structure to the President and Vice President, at a mission overseas, the Ambassador would be equivalent to the President and the DCM would be equivalent to the Vice-President. The Station Chief would be equivalent to the Director of the CIA to the President of the United States.

… and the Deputy Chief of Mission usually runs the embassy.

I thought the DCM was the Station Chief.

And the media will ensure their is no chance of public pushback. Can you doubt it when journalists are putting in writing their desire to have sex with Barack Hussein Obama? Their sick attempt to establish JKF Camelot as Obama, and romanticize JFK’s infidelity. They do have a head start thanks to Clinton”is.”

As for those Republicans who don’t call foul, they are not conservatives but RINOs. Anyone who takes their government being bought and paid for with a shrug believes the Constitution is a living bribing document. *shame*

This is politics and both you and Jake are astute observers of the “game”.

I gotta give you for this Eddy…yah, know how to turn a verifiable mountain into a mole hill, or is it veesa versa… or versa vee?

God’s gotta luv yah… and the work yah do!

Can Michael Moore get the North Korea appointment so he can enjoy the North Korean diet and loose some weight.

WashJeff on June 19, 2009 at 3:39 PM

Or Cuba. He loves it there.

Do the ambassadors get lot of payoffs when they go to those countries? Is that why they spend so much in the first place?

promachus on June 19, 2009 at 3:44 PM

Free room and board. Probably a per diem for eating out. Paid flights to and from the US. An extended paid vacation for those that near or in retirement.

WashJeff on June 19, 2009 at 3:48 PM

As a Department of State Foreign Service employee, I can answer your question:

“Do the ambassadors get lot of payoffs when they go to those countries?”

No. It is for prestige. They can only be paid what a career ambassador gets paid. I don’t have the figure off the top of my head, but I believe the max is around $160,000 yearly salary.

WashJeff: These appointees do get free room and board, just like any career ambassador and any other foreign service employee serving overseas. They do not get any per diem for eating out. They get representational funds for holding official representational parties, but there are specific government guidelines which need to be met to use those funds. They do get paid flights to and from the US for official travel only, just like any other career ambassador or foreign service employee serving overseas. But, an ambassador needs to request special permission from the Department of State to leave post on travel, official or personal. So they just can’t travel on the taxpayer dime whenever they want.

Speaking as a foreign service employee, I cannot stand political appointed ambassadors. I believe you will hear this same sentiment from a large majority of foreign service employees. These political appointees have no clue what they are doing and no nothing about diplomatic relations. Usually, they are a figure head to be the face of US representational parties and the Deputy Chief of Mission usually runs the embassy. This practice really needs to end. There are so many qualified career candidates that are passed over because of big donors. These career candidates would do a much better job.

With that said, even though I personally dislike all of Obama’s policies, he is not doing anything different than any other past president regardless of party affiliation. So I will not make a big stink over him politically appointing these ambassadors, which by the way is his constitutional right. He can politically appoint any government employee that falls under the executive branch.

I will fault him for promising during the campaign to end this political appointment process, but not follow through after he was elected. Not that it surprises me, but it is another campaign lie.

Hope and Change: Ambassadorships for sale

Gee, aren’t Ambassadorships, and Czars the normal way to pay for political donations…leastwise, Chicago style!

Before I get into the article that Ed Morrissey has up about the various p ……

Never back down.

WashJeff on June 19, 2009 at 3:39 PM
Mikey better be careful, or he’d be served as dinner for the entire North Korean nation. And yes, there have been reports of cannibalism during the worst of the famines.

rbj on June 19, 2009 at 3:57 PM

Nice!

JiangxiDad on June 19, 2009

There can never be payback because the other side owns the media. The best we can hope for is pennies on the dollar.
(Fractions of a penny?)

There are no bigger whores.

lorien1973 on June 19, 2009 at 3:39 PM

Sounds like the beginnings of a kick**s community organization .Yes we can!

“Thummalapally was President Obama’s roommate at Occidental College in 1979. As Barbara and Vinai Thummalapally described it to the Colorado Springs Gazette, they “used to party with (the president) in college. He was the guy who’d drink a few beers, maybe take a toke, stay up until 4 a.m. then excuse himself to crank out an ‘A’ paper due that morning. … He was Barry, the mellow guy in the leather jacket, dragging on a cigarette.”

……….. Vomit!

It’s whatever it’s made out to be. The past 8 years of GB were media creations of non-stories. Payback is a bit*h.

JiangxiDad on June 19, 2009 at 4:26 PM

Fair enough….carry on.

I gotta say this is a non-story

It’s whatever it’s made out to be. The past 8 years of GB were media creations of non-stories. Payback is a bit*h.

Oh yes, he skulked off in his leather jacket to write an A paper at 4am, which we will never see since his records are all under lock and key. Affirmative Action student Barry becomes President Affirmative Action Barry.

You’re one toke over the line, USA.

Meh…