Friday, February 4, 2011

Looks like war...

...with Luxembourg.
As a supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, Cynthia Stroum was a superstar whose financial backing of the campaign landed her a plum diplomatic posting in Europe.

As America's ambassador to Luxembourg, the wealthy Seattle-based businesswoman was a disaster.

According to an internal State Department report released Thursday, less than a week after she quit, Stroum's management of the U.S. Embassy in the tiny country was abysmal. The report says her tenure of about one year was fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor.
Nice pick, Barry.

Update: Know your enemy.

(H/T: Captain Heinrichs)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

at least four staffers quit or sought transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan during her tenure, unusual steps for diplomats assigned to a modern, Western European capital.

Now THAT is a sign of trouble, I'd say!

JeffS said...

That's the Chicago Way™.

Yojimbo said...

Why didn't he just send her to the Grand Duchy of Fenwick in the first place. They've aleady delcared war on us once, and won. I'm sure he would like nothing better than to surrender the country to a foreign "power" anyway.

These people can't get out of their own way.

Mr. Bingley said...

How do you say "reset button" in Luxembourgian?

richard mcenroe said...

You don't want to piss off Luxembourg. Sure, they only plant little tiny IED's but they plant lots of them.

Of course they sent this bimbo to Luxembourg; as Lichtenstein says, "We're small but we have standards..."

Yojimbo said...

Personality conflicts, verbal abuse, questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor. Sounds like the Pelosi shuttle to San Francisco most weeks.

mojo said...

Hey, at least it's one we can probably win in short order. The whole place is like 12 square miles.

Minicapt said...

Either "Reset-Taste" or "reset-knop"; probably more the latter.

... 2,586 square kilometres (999 sq mi), twice the size of Gagetown.

Cheers

bruce said...

Actualite:

Via google chrome translator:

"Want to invest in a real cause
Desire to enrich your experience beyond our borders?
Want to evolve throughout your career?
Are you a woman?"

Cynthia Stroum has stirred a hornet's nest!

richard mcenroe said...

And does she or does she not look like Joy Behar's trailer-park cousin?

Michael Lonie said...

"Of course they sent this bimbo to Luxembourg; as Lichtenstein says, "We're small but we have standards..."'

Liechtenstein beat off the Germans in WWII, in the great Battle of Vaduz (the capital of the Principality). When the Nazis infiltrated a company of soldiers into the town, intending to take of the communications and summon German tanks to "liberate" Liechtenstein from the tyranny of the Prince, the police arrested them all and dumped them out at the border. Then the Swiss threatened to cut off the butter shipments if the Germans tried again.

Paco said...

Michael: Now that's some fascinating history!

Anonymous said...

Michael and Paco, funny. Nazis are funny.

Michael Lonie said...

Nazis aren't funny, but a Nazi conspiracy ending with them getting their rear ends kicked by Liechtensteiners and having their oh-so-clever conspriacy fall apart, is funny.