The Ugly Fight to Be Our Man in Havana [View all]
The Ugly Fight to Be Our Man in Havana
The confirmation battle for the next U.S. ambassador to Cuba is going to be a blood bath. Can a low-profile career diplomat overcome the Cuban-American lobby?
By John Hudson
March 6, 2015
If anyone thinks Loretta Lynch, the nominee to replace Eric Holder as U.S. attorney general, is facing a bruising confirmation fight, spare a thought for the next ambassador to Cuba.
Barack Obama’s administration says it wants to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Havana by early April — an ambitious launch date that has triggered a flurry of speculation in diplomatic circles about whom the White House will nominate for a position that hasn’t been filled since now-deceased Ambassador Philip Bonsal was recalled in 1960 at the height of the Cold War.
Unlike with Lynch, who squeaked by the Senate Judiciary Committee with the help of three Republican votes, many inside the State Department wonder whether any nominee — however nonpartisan or highly regarded — will be able to survive the fire and brimstone of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, home to the two most pugnacious Cuba hawks in the country: Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)
The upcoming battle places huge importance on the selection of a nominee who can navigate the treacherous confirmation process and begin implementing the Cuba rapprochement with the tacit backing of Congress’s upper chamber.
More:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/06/the-ugly-fight-to-be-our-man-in-havana/
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