Nominee To Be Ambassador To Norway Thinks It’s A Repubic
Norway is a constitutional monarchy, not a democratic republic like the United States. When you’re nominated to be an ambassador to a country simply because you have money to the president to get him elected, at least make a trip to Wikipedia to find out. Then you won’t be embarrassed by John McCain, even though you once contributed to his campaign before you became a Democrat in 2009.
In the 2012 cycle, [George] Tsunis and his wife, Olga, are listed among the “top individual contributors” on the strength of having given $267,244, roughly 89% of which went to Democrats and 10% to Republicans. In all, he raised $988,550 for Obama and gave $300,000 to Democratic super PACs and $75,800 to the Obama Victory Fund.
Tsunis became a Democrat in November 2009 — after giving $50,000 to Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 campaign…
So it’s perhaps fitting that it was the tart-tongued Arizona senator’s questions that elicited his sloppy confirmation hearing performance last week (it starts at about 1:14 here).
To recap: Tsunis described Norway as having a president (“apparently under the impression that the country is a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy,” as the Local Norway’s News notes dryly). And he characterized the anti-immigration Progress Party as being among “fringe elements” who “spew their hatred” and have been denounced by the government.
That prompted McCain’s disbelieving answer: “The government has denounced them? The coalition government — they’re part of the coalition of the government.”
McCain, already flummoxed by the apparent inability of Obama’s choice to be ambassador to Hungary to list strategic U.S. interests there, closed his questioning with a bit of sarcasm: “I have no more questions for this incredibly highly qualified group of nominees.”
