Posted on 06/18/2012 4:58:39 PM PDT by kristinn
President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife.
Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart."
"I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another capacity," McGurk said in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
McGurk's withdrawal throws a fresh question mark over Washington's uncertain relations with Iraq following the departure of U.S. forces last year.
While the embassy in Baghdad remains one of the biggest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, there are plans to trim the U.S. presence further as early hopes for close political and economic ties fade and Iraq's Shi'ite-led government draws closer to its powerful Shi'ite neighbor Iran
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Note that Al-Reuters swiftly mentioned the erstwhile candidate’s ties to the Bush administration. Ergo:
BUSH’S FAULT!
The Obama Administration, which has denounced and investigated a series of high-profile leaks, declined to comment today on the leaked State Department emails that cost them a high-profile diplomatic nominee Monday.
But the torpedoing of the Administration's young, ambitious, and aggressive choice as Ambassador to Iraq, Brett McGurk, leaves behind a whodunnit with any number of suspects.
McGurk's candidacy for the Baghdad post had faced increasing resistance after at times flirtatious emails between him and his current wife, Gina Chon, were published on Flickr on June 4, two days before his first round of hearings on the Hill.
The well-timed email leak, coupled with criticism from Senator John McCain over McGurk's role in negotiating the end of the U.S. military presence in Iraq, had the effect of crippling his confirmation.
SNIP
Obama invites cynicism and this could just have been to embarrass the Republican who was an Iraq guru but not necessarily someone with a history that the Iraqi government would welcome. If that was the case.
Can’t any of these people keep their pants on?
I want people vented on political stances.
Dirt digging should not qualify.
I guess it goes back to Joe McCarthy at the least. Hatfields and McCoys.
It may end up just like that.
So why would State leak emails to torpedo an Obama pick and what did McGurk do in negotiating the end of the Iraq War which is getting McCain so perturbed?
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