Even though I have my issues with Retired Marine General Anthony Zinni over some policies he pushed while he was Commander of CENTCOM, this takes the cake. He worked hard for Obama, He endured much crap from people like me who declared him a sellout. Obviously he was promised something good for all the help he gave the Messiah. And this is the Thanks he gets..
Laura Rozen's The Washington Times' extraordinary report on just how badly Gen. Anthony Zinni feels he was treated by the Obama team is a mark of, above all, how close the foreign policy appointments -- hashed out between Clinton and Obama teams -- are being held. The upside of this, in theory, is relatively few leaks. The downside is lots of stress and uncertainty.
And Zinni's not the only one in the dark. Former Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer, a major Obama backer and key surrogate on the campaign, is, last I heard, back at Princeton and telling friends he has no idea what, if anything, he'll be doing in the administration.
From the Times:
When retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni told the Washington Times today that he was offered the job of
U.S. ambassador to Iraq before being passed over in favor of diplomat Christopher Hill, he did not say that one of the outrages of the experience was that his friend of 30 years, fellow former Marine Corps commandant and now national security advisor James L. Jones had offered him the job, and then failed to tell him when the decision was changed.
"Jones had called me before the inauguration and asked if I would be willing to serve as ambassador to Iraq or in one of the envoy jobs, on the Middle East peace process," Zinni told Foreign Policy. "I said yes."
"Then two weeks ago, Jones called," Zinni continued, "and said, 'We talked to the secretary of state, and everybody would like to offer you the Iraq job. I said yes.
"The president called and congratulated me," Zinni said.
Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked for a meeting last Monday night, Zinni said. He said he went to the meeting in her office at the State Department, where Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Williams Burns were also in attendance.
"She thanks me, asked me my views on Iraq," Zinni recalled. "She said to Burns and Steinberg, 'We've got to move quickly, Crocker is leaving, we've got to get someone in there and get the paperwork done and hearings... Lots to do to get ready to go."
Zinni said he expected a call from Burns the next day. Not hearing from him, he called him.
"To make a long story short, I kept getting blown off all week," Zinni said. "Meantime, I was rushing to put my personal things in order," to get ready to go.
"Finally, nobody was telling me anything," Zinni said. "I called Jones Monday several times. I finally got through late in evening. I asked Jones, 'What's going on?' And Jones said, 'We decided on Chris Hill.'"
"I said, 'Really,'" Zinni recalled. "That was news to me."
Jones asked him if he would like to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Zinni said. "I said, 'You can stick that with whatever other offers,"
Zinni recalled, saying he had used more colorful language with Jones.
Asked Jones's response and if he was apologetic, Zinni said, "Jones was not too concerned. He laughed about it."
Zinni said particularly galling is that had he not managed to get through to Jones on Monday night after repeated calls, he would have found out about the Chris Hill appointment in the Washington Post the next day with everybody else.
"You know, I would have appreciated if someone called me and said, 'Minds were changed,'" Zinni said. "But not even to get a call. That's what's really embarrassing."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/