WP: Bono? Ventura? Mark Sanford? Why Not the Best?

[Guest guest]

Bono? Ventura? Mark

Sanford? Why Not the Best?

By Al Kamen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091503459.html?referrer=emailarticle

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Despite all the talk from President Obama

and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about how super-important foreign

assistance is these days, the administration has yet to announce a candidate to

head the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Clinton a few months ago blamed the clearance process for the delay, calling

it a " nightmare. " No one is going to disagree with that, but pretty

much the same ridiculous process was in place in 1993 when Bill Clinton named

Atwood to the job only two months after inauguration. And nothing in the

process had changed by 2001 when W. Bush named Natsios to the job

scarcely one month after taking office.

But there's an increasing feeling in the

foreign aid community that the leadership required to rescue a long-sinking

ship is not going to be easy to find. As one observer noted: " Anyone smart

enough to do the job is smart enough not to take it, " especially when it's

unclear whether USAID will be part of the State Department, as Clinton prefers,

or whether it will be an independent, Cabinet-level agency, as many aid experts

advocate.

Given the Senate's busy calendar, unless a

nomination goes to the Hill in the next few weeks, it's possible the agency

will be without an administrator at the end of the first year of Obama's

presidency. The vacuum could not have come at a worse time, Oxfam America

President Offenheiser says.

There is legislation in the Senate and the

House that would overhaul USAID; there is also a major review of the

development program, which is " a great step forward, " Offenheiser

said, " but there is no one in charge. " He said that there is a

" serious crisis because of a lack of leadership " and a need for

someone who can " inspire a demoralized staff, who is a strong

manager " with " gravitas " and development experience.

The international aid community is so

desperate for someone to run USAID that top aid groups are holding their own

poll to help find a candidate, listing 20 possibilities. A week into the poll,

Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development and formerly at the

World Bank, is leading with 15 percent of the vote, ahead of Gayle , a

former USAID official now at the National Security Council, by just one point.

Former Secretary of State Colin comes in third at 12 percent.

The middle of the pack, with around 7

percent of the vote, includes former GOP senator Chuck Hagel and Microsoft

Chairman Bill Gates.

Many of the candidates on the list tend

toward the wonky -- long on aid expertise but short on the political heft and

stature to lift AID to some modicum of functionality. But desperate times

require creative solutions.

So, on the political front, former Minnesota governor

Ventura (I) or soon-to-be-former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ® --

brings some of the Kennedy magic -- might be enticed to take the job.

Soon-to-be-former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ® now has international

travel experience plus some knowledge of Spanish.

Perhaps someone from across the pond?

There's Bono, Live Aid concert organizer Bob Geldof and underemployed former

British prime minister Tony Blair. Experienced GOP administration officials

might be the ticket, with former U.N. ambassador and State Department official

Bolton -- who worked at USAID in the Reagan administration -- and former

deputy secretary of defense and World Bank head Wolfowitz, who also was

ambassador to Indonesia,

looking strong. Amongst the Dems, former vice president Al Gore would probably

decline, but former nine-term congressman Jim Traficant, just out of the

slammer after serving seven years for bribery and racketeering, would be a

possibility, should he decline to reclaim his House seat.

CLOSE

Seems every time you turn on the

television, there's President Obama, getting all fired up, talking about

health-care reform, staying in school and other highly partisan, emotional

issues. This ubiquity naturally raises questions as to whether he's becoming

overexposed, cheapening the product by familiarity and so on.

But maybe not yet. Our New

York colleague Bart Gellman, walking Monday on the south side of Washington Square Park,

noticed a large police traffic cordon. " Is the president passing by here?

" Yeah, " the officer said.

" Bush is coming. "

BUT NO CIGAR

The House vote yesterday to rebuke Rep.

Joe (R-S.C.) for shouting " You lie! " at President Obama during

his speech last week was one of many signs of support for the president.

For example, Obama came under attack

Tuesday from liberals and opponents of the trade embargo on Cuba for signing a one-year

extension of the law used to impose the embargo. But anti-Castro folks and

embargo supporters, including Mauricio Claver-Carone, head of the U.S.-Cuba

Democracy Political Action Committee here, defended Obama.

" People think he's a liar, "

Claver-Carone said, according to the Miami Herald, " but he's doing exactly

what he has said -- changing [restrictions on] travel and remittances but not

the embargo. "

Okay, maybe not the strongest endorsement.