The initial estimate to put the Russian Olympics on was substantially less than $10 billion. The final cost is already higher than $50 billion. This will make it the most expensive Olympics games ever to be put together, orders of magnitudes more expensive than all previous winter Olympics, a cost overrun that will eventually be paid by the ordinary Russian taxpayer.
Why the disconnect between the forecasted cost and the reality? Investigative journalists have pointed out how corrupt the whole Russian society, government, and political class are. Every effort, every task, every Olympic venue, every politician, every construction company, every transaction was infested with crony politics, blackmail, bribery, kickbacks, and inefficiencies that kept running up the cost of the Games.
I thought it must be a terrible place to live where anything and everything is subject to political connections, bribes, cronyism, kickbacks, etc. But then I came across a February 7, 2014 article from Slate.com which got me thinking: under the current American political class, we are really not that much different from Russia and its politically well-connected, corrupt and crony system of rewarding friends and allies at the cost of the taxpayer and the good of the country.
The Slate article, using data from the Center For Public Integrity looked at the ambassador appointments that President Obama has made during his administration. Details of the analysis include:
- Of the 85 ambassador appointments he has made, 24 (28%) of those appointments were given to people who were designated as Obama election campaign “bundlers,” i.e. political allies who had raised at least half a million dollars for the President’s political campaigns.
- Another 24 (28%) ambassador appointments were so-called political appointees. Political appointee, another name for political ally.
- Thus, over 56% of the ambassadorships were assigned to political allies who probably have no diplomatic experience and whose only qualifications were that they made financial and/or political contributions to President Obama, tactics right out of the Russian cronyism and kickback playbook.
- The remaining 37 (44%) ambassador appointments were made to the right kind of people, career diplomats, whose experience makes them far more qualified to represent American interests than those 48 people who throw a good fund raising tea or dinner.
- As you will see from the “bundlers” list below, most of these types of ambassador appointments went to really nice situations, modern, advanced countries and economies whose governments we are in very good relations with, i.e. these are the plum and easier diplomatic posts, posts that went to political friends with no diplomatic background of experience.
- The majority of the career diplomat appointments went to third world, smaller, more dangerous countries, the vast majority of which were in Africa or scattered around the south Pacific, hardly the plum jobs by any stretch of the imagination.
1) I do not recall any other President doing it to this extent.
2) I do not remember any other President setting a floor of campaign funding collected, which in this case looks like you had to have collected at least $500,000 to the get the plum ambassador job (the actual amount for each of the 24 bundlers raised is listed below with their names.)
3) Just because others did it does not mean he should also have done it. And maybe this is where Obama overextended himself, or lied outright, when he was running for President.
He was supposed to be different than all those other Presidents. He was the hope and change President, things were going to be different and better in Washington. He was going to rise above the petty and inefficient politics of Washington past.
He was going to reduce crony earmarks in the Federal budget by half, earmarks that waste tens of billions of dollars every year of taxpayer wealth. He was not going to allow any high powered lobbyists get a high ranking position within his administration. He was going to have the most transparent administration ever, a trait that would help identify and destroy secret crony deals, back room deals, kickbacks, etc. There was going to be less waste and more efficiency in the Federal government under his administration.
But, alas, his administration looks like a line from an old Who song: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Earmarks and the corruption that comes with them are as big as ever. High powered lobbyists are in high levels throughout his administration. His administration is shaping up as the least transparent of any. Waste is rampant, inefficiencies in government are everywhere and growing.
And as list below shows, it is not what you know and how well you can serve the country overseas, it is all about the money you raised for his political campaign. Yes, he may have over promised and severely under delivered but that does not make him unaccountable. It only makes him a mirror image of Putin and his Russian government, a government whose corruption is on display in Sochi and the Olympic games.
The list of Obama bundlers, where they have been appointed to overseas or where they have been nominated to serve overseas, along with the amount of money they raised for the Presdient’s political activities:
Kirk W.B. Wagar. Founder and managing partner of Wagar Law firm. Confirmed to Singapore, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama
Matthew Winthrop Barzun, National Finance Chair for Obama's 2012 campaign. Confirmed to United Kingdom, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama
Mark D. Gilbert, Director at financial services firm Barclays. Nominated to New Zealand and Samoa, raised at least $1.2 million for Obama
Michael Anderson Lawson, Former president of Los Angeles World Airports’ Board of Airport Commissioners/ Nominated to UN Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization, raised at least $950,000 for Obama
Timothy M. Broas, Attorney at Winston & Strawn LLP. Nominated to Netherlands, raised at least $945,100 for Obama
Crystal Nix-Hines. Lawyer at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. Nominated to UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, raised at least $872,500 for Obama
Suzi LeVine, Former Microsoft executive. Nominated to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, raised at least $800,000 for Obama
John B. Emerson, Executive at investment firm Capital Group Companies. Confirmed to Germany, raised at least $775,000 for Obama
Denise Campbell Bauer, 2012 finance chair for Women for Obama. Confirmed to Belgium, raised at least $753,500 for Obama
Bruce A. Heyman, Executive at Goldman Sachs & Co. Nominated to Canada, raised at least $750,000 for Obama
Alexa Lange Wesner, Former president of technology recruiting firm HireTECH. Confirmed to Austria, raised at least $750,000 for Obama
Pamela K. Hamamoto, Former executive at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Nominated to Representative to the Office of the U.N. And Other International Organizations in Geneva, raised at least $700,000 for Obama
John R. Phillips, Founder and partner at Phillips & Cohen law firm. Confirmed to Italy and San Marino, raised at least $700,000 for Obama
Robert C. Barber, Attorney at Looney & Grossman LLP. Nominated to Iceland, raised at least $600,000 for Obama
Robert A. Sherman, Attorney at Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Nominated to Portugal, raised at least $550,000 for Obama
James Walter "Wally" Brewster, Senior managing partner at consulting firm SB&K Global. Confirmed to Dominican Republic, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Colleen Bradley Bell, Producer for Bell-Phillip Television Productions. Nominated to Hungary, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Anthony Luzzatto Gardner, Executive at private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners. Nominated to European Union, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
George J. Tsunis, Founder, chairman and CEO of Chartwell Hotels, LLC. Nominated to Norway, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Keith Michael Harper, Lawyer with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. Nominated to UN Human Rights Council, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Noah Bryson Mamet, Founder and president of consulting firm Noah Mamet & Associates. Nominated to Argentina, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
James Costos, Home Box Office (HBO) vice president. Confirmed to Spain and Andorra, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Dwight L. Bush, Sr., President of financial and business consulting firm D.L. Bush & Associates. Nominated to Morocco, raised at least $500,000 for Obama
Michael Froman, Former deputy national security advisor. Confirmed to US Trade Representative, raised at least $500,000 for Obama.
Plum jobs for wealthy political donors, not the hope and change we were sold back in 2008. Just like in Russia, it is not what you know, in America today it is also who you know and how much is the bribe or kickback going to be. [Side note: I find it interesting that for a President who constantly accuses his political foes of waging a "war on woman," only 25% of his ambassadorship appointments were women.]
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