The Case For Ambassador Kyrsten Sinematic
Sinematic, adj, /ˌsinəˈmadik/ of or relating to motion pictures or the making of films.
MSNBC analyst Matthew Miller made a smashing suggestion on Twitter this morning on the cusp of Senator Sinema’s performative theatrics at announcing she is now an Independent, no longer a Democrat. Biden ought to appoint her to a plum Ambassadorship and get her out of the Senate, where the next few years are already going to be challenging to say the least.
An Ambassadorship for Senator Sinema would be a capital idea. America needs Ambassadors, and The President has been slow in filling the positions of our diplomats overseas. An American Ambassadorship — to the right country, to be sure — is an important, complex and often not un-glamorous position to be in. Ambassadors represent the United States' standpoint on policy and all issues related to American interests, which dovetails perfectly into the Senator’s experience on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Senators, of course, tend to confirm Senators, so there is no question of her nomination sailing through the voice vote. And since the incoming Governor of Arizona happens to be a Democrat, her replacement would be one as well.
But the question remains, to what country? What are the Senator’s cultural interests, elected affinities? Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a public intellectual, and, using that, Nixon lured him from Harvard to India and thusly into his orbit. Senator Sinema, of the Banking Committee, really, really, really likes money — like, a lot. The carried interest loophole in the Inflation Reduction Act is her love language. “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who used to fight to preserve carried interest on behalf of his Wall Street constituents but gave that up years ago, has gotten $259,100,” Timothy Noah reminds us in The New Republic. “Still, Sinema, who sits on the Banking Committee, has collected $2.2 million overall from the financial sector since 2017, and much of that is a likely payoff for opposing repeal of the carried interest loophole.”
So, what Ambassadorship would go best with the Senator’s portfolio as — how does one put it politely? — a "friend of private equity.” Italy, I believe, is still vacant. And, post-Pandemic, the Italian private equities market is looking robust. There is also Brazil that is vacant and nominees pending in India and — grand prize, perhaps? — the United Arab Emirates. Any of these posh, juicy posts would surely provide ample opportunities for performative theatrics and meeting with private equity powerhouses. Not that this writer of this newsletter would ever condone such grasping, covetous behavior in a public official.
But if Senator Sinema ever decided to “transition” from Ambassador to private equity, well, she wouldn’t be the first to silky walk from the world of diplomacy to one of financial empire. Ron Lauder cynically parlayed his stint as Ambassador to Austria under Reagan into something of a Central European telecommunications empire.
That is, until it went bust. (Averted Gaze)
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