From 2006 to 2009, he served as ambassador to Sri Lanka. Blake was criticized for his advocacy of a political solution to the conflict, which he mistakenly argued could not be resolved by force of arms. In February 2007 at a Sri Lankan airbase, Blake sustained minor injuries from a mortar blast fired by Tamil rebels, who claimed they were not informed that Blake was present and were only returning fire from the Sri Lankan Army.   read more

Currently serving as director of the Office of Regional and Security Affairs for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department, John F. Hoover served two straight postings in Africa, as economic counselor at the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, from 2004 to 2008, and as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Kampala, Uganda, from 2008 to 2010.   read more

One of Joseph’s favorite targets was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Had few policy goals and no wins” … “[California Republican lawmaker Darrell] Issa is an ass but he’s on to something here with the @HillaryClinton whitewash of accountability for Benghazi” … “@ChelseaClinton seems to be assuming all of her parents’ vices ...” And he once tweeted that the State Department “has shitty staff.”   read more

Wesner has donated about $300,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations, including more than $148,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Not only did she donate $9,600 to Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, Wesner also acted as a campaign bundler, raising more than $500,000 for each of Obama’s presidential runs. In early 2008 she founded a political action committee called Blue Texas that spent nearly $1 million on legislative races that year.   read more

Mark B. Childress has served as an assistant to President Barack Obama and deputy chief of staff for planning at the White House since 2012. From 2011 to 2012, he served as senior counselor for Access to Justice at the Department of Justice, before moving on to his White House job. In that job, he received plaudits for guiding White House strategy on several politically difficult issues, including the exemption for some religious institutions from the ACA contraception mandate.   read more

Obama fundraiser Timothy Broas is getting a do-over. Despite an embarrassing late night arrest for drunk driving and resisting arrest in June 2012 that killed his nomination to be the next ambassador to the Netherlands, Broas was re-nominated by Obama on July 18 of this year to be his man in The Hague.   read more

Gaspard signed on as Obama’s national political director in June 2008 and after the election served as associate personnel director of President-elect Obama’s transition team. He then worked in the White House as assistant to the president and director of the Office of Political Affairs from 2009 to 2011. As the re-election effort loomed, he moved over to the Democratic National Committee, where he was executive director from 2011 to 2013.   read more

Moreno became a federal judge when he was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, where he served from February 1998 to mid-2001. Nominated by Gov. Gray Davis (D), Moreno served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of California from October 18, 2001 until his retirement on February 28, 2011.   read more

Although Heyman has been working with wealthy Canadian clients of Goldman since 2001, his qualifications for nomination were not damaged by the fact that he has been a “mega-bundler” for both of Obama’s presidential runs, helping to raise millions of dollars and serving on Obama’s National Finance Committee in 2012. A longtime Democrat in an industry dominated by Republicans, Heyman has donated more than $180,000 to political causes, including $96,000 to the Democratic National Committee.   read more

Lu compared Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to the two young mafia dons of The Godfather films: the impulsive Sonny Corleone and his calculating younger brother Michael. Lu wrote that Aliyev’s foreign policy—which he characterized as based on “restraint and a helpful bias toward integration with the West” represented his inner Michael, while his “increasingly authoritarian” domestic policies channeled Sonny   read more

A lifelong Democrat, Sherman has donated more than $80,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations, including $27,000 to the Democratic National Committee. He was a member of Obama for America and served on its national finance committee, raising at least $500,000 for Obama. In January 2013, President Obama appointed Sherman to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.   read more

Wagar has been active in Democratic politics since the 1990s, and has donated more than $220,000 to numerous Democratic candidates and causes, including more than $110,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He raised money for Janet Reno’s failed 2002 gubernatorial run, and he was the DNC’s Florida finance chair during John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. He was Obama’s Florida finance chairman in 2008 and 2012, hauling in more than $1 million for the president in each election.   read more

In a moral transgression that received much less attention than her statements about the Benghazi attack, in September 2012 Rice flew to Addis Ababa and gave a glowing eulogy for Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi that had human rights advocates wincing, at best. Rice has also been an enthusiastic supporter of Rwanda’s dictator, Paul Kagame, who was one of her clients when she worked for Intellibridge.   read more

The latest ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo is a State Department Africa specialist who has served as the U.S. Special Representative for Somalia since August 2011. James C. Swan previously served as the number two official at the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa, and he is well acquainted with the situation in war-torn central Africa.   read more

Caroline Kennedy’s financial-disclosure forms, filed as part of her nomination, show her net worth to be between $67 million and $278 million, including family trusts, government bonds, commercial property, and eight Cayman Island partnerships, with a combined value ranging from $542,000 to $1.2 million. She also owns her mother’s 375-acre estate, “Red Gate Farm,” in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard.   read more

As President Obama’s drug czar, Kerlikowske supported the continued federal crackdown on marijuana. On the other hand, after three years on the job, he admitted to Congress that he had failed to notice the “national crisis” of prescription drug abuse even though more Americans were dying from overdoses of prescription pain killers than from heroin and cocaine combined.   read more