By Chuck & Georganne MacNab
Last evening John Bolton, former Ambassador to the U.N., addressed a large attendance of prominent Missourians at a fund raising dinner for Tom Schweich, Republican candidate for Missouri Auditor. The event was held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in St Louis. In addition to his timely and illuminating comments on foreign policy, Amb. Bolton highlighted his prior association with Schweich who served as his Chief of Staff at the UN. Opening remarks were provided by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder followed by hosts former Ambassador to Belgium, Sam Fox, and former Ambassador to Hungary, Bert Walker.
Ambassador John Danforth, whom Schweich also served as Chief of Staff at the U.N., introduced Schweich as "one of the most intensely focused and best organized people he knew" and rendered the opinion that "he will be a great auditor." Danforth, in his presentation at the dinner, praised Schweich's abilities in uncovering corruption, waste and fraud for clients in private practice and for the public while serving in various government capacities. He commented why someone with such outstanding credentials might seek an office such as State Auditor, offering that "auditors have a tendency to become Senators and Governors," referring to John Ashcroft, Kit Bond and others who were State Auditors.
In addition to being instrumental in exposing massive fraud and waste at the U.N. as Chief of Staff for both Danforth and Bolton, Tom Schweich's lists of accomplishments and qualifications in the detection and elimination of waste, fraud and abuse are uniquely impressive and wide ranging. In his remarks he emphasized that, although he would have been against the stimulus, now that it is forthcoming it is critical that these expenditures be properly monitored.
Ambassador Bolton spoke about the many mistakes and foreign policy misjudgments currently emerging from the Obama Administration. Of particular interest were his views concerning U.S. policy toward Iran. He noted that Iran is currently in violation of four U.N. resolutions. With regard to discovery of Iran's newest nuclear facility, Bolton asked how anyone could have been in doubt about its purpose. It's obvious that it was built to increase their supply of enriched uranium so that they could build nuclear bombs as quickly as possible. Bolton's opinion is that it is obvious that the years of "negotiations," excuses and their associated tactics have but one purpose - to buy time and delay until they have a stockpile of usable nuclear weapons. He stated that negotiation is "not a policy, it is a technique." One must understand that in negotiating with the Russians, for instance, they will pocket any concessions they are given and then be extremely insulted if the next set of concessions is not already on the way.
The presentations given by most speakers during the evening were sprinkled with humorous side comments and observations that added to the evening's entertainment. Bolton quoted someone high up in the Bush Administration as saying that Hugo Chavez was like "Fidel Castro without a brain." Danforth observed that he had stayed on as U.N. Ambassador for all of five months, which was "as long as I could take it" and then went on to note that, since TWA had gone out of business, the Ambassadors Club appeared to have moved to the Ritz Carlton - a reference to the number of actual Ambassadors in the room. He observed that while the Obama Administration had promised change, the change they delivered "was not exactly what people envisioned." Bolton compared the Obama Administration's policies of appeasement to circumstances where the police department and the mafia sit down to discuss their mutual interest in law enforcement. The audience loved it.
There was a wide cross
section of attendees
at the event. In addition to those referenced
above, they included MO State Senators Jane
Cunningham and Scott Rupp, Kevin Jackson
(author of The Big Black Lie), and several
Republican Central Committee members and
office holders, some from as far away as
Kansas City.
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Note: For those interested
in seeing more photographic images of the
event, they will soon be available at
http://riteon.us - click on the Tom
Schweich link on the home page.
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