Saturday, November 25, 2017

The Diplomat vs. the Lobbyist


Thomas O. Melia, the-american-interest.com [full text available through subscription]

Kostelancik image from

A former U.S. congressman is leveling serious accusations against a U.S. diplomat on behalf of Viktor Orban.

Excerpt:
One would think Paul Manafort’s current legal troubles would serve as a cautionary tale for Washington lobbyists about the perils of seeking to burnish the reputations of authoritarian political leaders from other lands. And yet these lobbyists persist, even to the point of working for sketchy Ukrainian politico-oligarchic interests with ties to Moscow. Still. 
The latest example of this comes courtesy of former Florida Congressman Connie Mack IV, who recently organized a mock hearing in the Capitol, which was broadcast on NewsOne as if it was a real hearing of an imaginary “Congressional Committee on Financial Issues.”  ...
[from Google citation from the article] For another foreign client fond of Putin and Russia, Mr. Mack is denouncing the excellent public diplomacy of a respected American diplomat. In an occasional newsletter to Congressional offices entitled “Hungary Insights,” Mr. Mack last week complained about David Kostelancik [JB see], the chargé d'affaires at [U.S. Embassy in Hungary]...

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