"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, June 06, 2018

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

You may have seen this story from a couple of days ago, about our new ambassador to Germany, Richard Grennell, practicing Trump-style "diplomacy":

Trumpian U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has expressed great excitement over the wave of anti-establishment conservatism in Europe, saying he wants to “empower” leaders of the movement.

At a sit-down interview at his official residence in Berlin with Breitbart London, Ambassador Grenell said: “There are a lot of conservatives throughout Europe who have contacted me to say they are feeling there is a resurgence going on.”

“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left,” he added.

Somehow, wanting to "empower" Nazis and their allies in Germany smacks a little bit of being tone-deaf. OK, completely tone-deaf.

And I'd love to know more about those "failed policies" of the left. Does he means the ones that insure that people have health care, jobs, food on the table, and the like? Those policies seem to be pretty successful, especially in western Europe.

And this part just demonstrates how far out to lunch Grennell is:

“There’s no question about that and it’s an exciting time for me. I look across the landscape and we’ve got a lot of work to do but I think the election of Donald Trump has empowered individuals and people to say that they can’t just allow the political class to determine before an election takes place, who’s going to win and who should run.”

Of course -- that's why we have primaries and nominating conventions and the like -- to make sure the voters have no voice.

Needless to say, the reaction has not been positive, both in Germany and at home.

And of course, the State Department is defending him:

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday defended remarks by the new U.S. ambassador to Germany that drew condemnation from across that country’s political spectrum, saying that U.S. envoys “have a right to express their opinions.”

“Don’t we as Americans have the right to free speech?” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in response to questions about U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell’s comments in an interview he gave last weekend to Breitbart News.

Asked whether it is State Department policy for U.S. ambassadors to advocate for particular political parties, Nauert responded, “Ambassadors have a right to express their opinion. They’re representatives of the White House, whether it’s this administration or other administrations.”

One, representatives of the U.S. government, such as ambassadors, do not have an unfettered right to express their own opinions -- there are distinct limits on that for them.

Two, do note the self-contradiction in her last statement.

(Nauert, by the way, in a previous incarnation was one of Fox News' resident racists.)

The German government should just declare him persona non grata and kick his ass out of the country, but they won't -- Merkel is a lot smarter than Trump.

Putin laughed.

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