Christine O’Donnell will not get her wish to join SFRC
GOP Delaware candidate Christine O’Donnell’s projected loss to Democrat Chris Coons means that she will not get her chance to chat about foreign policy with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That’s what O’Donnell pledged to do in a recent debate. A huge admirer of Clinton’s despite ...
GOP Delaware candidate Christine O'Donnell's projected loss to Democrat Chris Coons means that she will not get her chance to chat about foreign policy with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
GOP Delaware candidate Christine O’Donnell’s projected loss to Democrat Chris Coons means that she will not get her chance to chat about foreign policy with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
That’s what O’Donnell pledged to do in a recent debate. A huge admirer of Clinton’s despite that she doesn’t support Clinton’s actual policies, O’Donnell also said about the former First Lady, "She is someone that I admire, she is a woman who has had to hold her own in a man’s world, and I think she’s doing an amazing job right now."
So will Clinton still be willing to kibbitz about world affairs with O’Donnell even though she’s just a regular citizen now? We’ve asked the State Department and will let you know when they respond.
And although O’Donnell won’t be joining the foreign relations panel, there are several big changes coming to John Kerry‘s committee. Chris Dodd (D-CT) is retiring and Russ Feingold (D-WI) is struggling to hold onto his seat.
If Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak loses his bid in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey (D-PA) might have to leave SFRC to take a seat on the powerful appropriations committee, especially considering that appropriator Arlen Specter (D-PA) is leaving and Pennsylvania lost another key appropriator this year when Rep. John Murtha died.
As for the soon to be open SFRC seats, they typically goes to junior members because senior members seek out other, more profitable panels. But for those who have national ambitions, SFRC might be good because it gives emerging national political figures some gravitas and foreign policy bona fides (that was Barack Obama‘s strategy) So watch out for bids to join SFRC from projected GOP Senate winners Marco Rubio of Florida and Rob Portman of Ohio.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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