— Domani Spero
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On July 21, the Senate confirmed the following nominations by voice votes:
- Executive Calendar #789, Michael Anderson Lawson, of California, for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as Representative of the United States of America on the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization
– President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts | September 10, 2013
– Today at the SFRC: Crocker (IO), Lawson (ICAO), Wood (USCD) | February 4, 2014
- Executive Calendar #537 Eunice S. Reddick, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Niger.
– President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts | July 30, 2013
– Certificate of Demonstrated Competency – 2014 (pdf)
Maybe there’s a bored Hollywood film producer willing to construct multiple fake events and get this Senate moving?
It seems like this is the trend in the Senate these days. The chance for confirmation in the “world’s greatest deliberative body” seems to jump by quite a bit, and speeds up in a hurry when a particular country hits breaking news. The nominations for Iraq, Egypt, Honduras, Kuwait, Qatar … were all walked relatively quickly. Those going to the islands may have a longer wait.
Last week, a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane was shot down over Ukraine. This week, we finally have our ambassador to Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), freshly confirmed after a 10-month wait.
Ambassador Reddick was confirmed for the US Embassy in Niger after almost a year of wait. Excuse me, Niger, what the heck is going on there? What — drones in Niger?
Don’t worry if we’re now going on five months with no ambassador to Moscow. That Russian bear has been growling rather badly, so by next week, it looks like we’ll finally get a newly confirmed ambassador for Moscow. That is, if the Senate has been reading the news with eyes wide open.
We expect all these officials will have chips implanted in their brains and will have no need for time to transition to their new responsibilities. They’ll just know it and do it. They may not even need to do pack out or make travel arrangements for family and pets either. A heck of a time to move house when things are falling apart almost everywhere. No matter. We’ll just beam them all up to their next posts. And just like that, with a push of a button, we’ll erase all those wasted months of waiting.
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