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)
Posted by at

14 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 4, 2011 at 8:14 AM

    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!

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  2. JeffSFebruary 4, 2011 at 8:56 AM

    That's the Chicago Way™.

    ReplyDelete
  3. YojimboFebruary 4, 2011 at 11:13 AM

    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.

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  4. Mr. BingleyFebruary 4, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    How do you say "reset button" in Luxembourgian?

    ReplyDelete
  5. richard mcenroeFebruary 4, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    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..."

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  6. YojimboFebruary 4, 2011 at 3:56 PM

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

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  7. mojoFebruary 4, 2011 at 5:04 PM

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

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  8. MinicaptFebruary 4, 2011 at 7:20 PM

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

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

    Cheers

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  9. bruceFebruary 4, 2011 at 8:37 PM

    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!

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  10. richard mcenroeFebruary 4, 2011 at 8:45 PM

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

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  11. Michael LonieFebruary 4, 2011 at 9:22 PM

    "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.

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  12. PacoFebruary 4, 2011 at 10:14 PM

    Michael: Now that's some fascinating history!

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousFebruary 5, 2011 at 8:25 AM

    Michael and Paco, funny. Nazis are funny.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Michael LonieFebruary 6, 2011 at 12:08 AM

    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.

    ReplyDelete

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