FAIRFIELD, South Ceona - A top NAT senator is taking the Menuhaeo administration to task for what he perceives to be a "power vacuum" at the office of Foreign Affairs.
Appearing on the GBC's Landscape with Jim Danderfield, centrist Nationalist Sen. Vic Chambers of South Ceona said the president is taking too long to name a nominee for Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Currently, Deputy Secretary Dawnelle Hunter-Garrett is serving in an interim role, until the president announces his nominee.
Hunter-Garrett assumed in the interim position after former Secretary Jim McCaren stepped down back in February.
"I respect the president and I think he's a good man. And I respect Deputy Secretary Hunter-Garrett. But I'm concerned that our country has gone several months now without a formal leader at the Office of Foreign Affairs. It gives the appearance of a power vacuum at the Foreign Affairs Office and that weakens our image and our influence," said Chambers.
Hunter-Garrett is doing a "fine job" for the time-being, Chambers said. But he would prefer the president nominate a candidate with more experience in diplomacy.
"The Deputy Secretary is very knowledgeable, but we really need someone who has experience as a diplomat, not just a professor," said Chambers.
Hunter-Garrett was a the chair of the International Affairs program at Kinn College prior to taking the deputy secretary post.
Chambers, who is up for re-election in 2014, also urged President Menuhaeo and the international community to do more to help ease the tension in Ukraine, following Russia's forceful annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
"I think we ought to be doing more instead of just sitting idly by while (Vladimir) Putin takes what doesn't belong to him," said Chambers. "We don't have to send thousands of troops over there, but we could do more than just freezing assets in Western bank accounts."
Chambers has no opponent yet in the fall race. Several no-name Conservatives are running to challenge him in November. But he is considered potentially vulnerable, since South Ceona is a more conservative state and the minority party (the CNS this go-round) historically fares better in mid-term elections (2014 is a mid-term election).
In other words, he's not considered vulnerable yet. But he could face a tough fight for re-election, depending on which CNS candidate wins the primary and how much money party leaders and conservative activists are willing to spend on the race.
Earlier this year, rumors were circulating that Chambers might switch parties and become a Conservative. A spokeswoman for his campaign shot down that idea, saying in a statement that "Vic Chambers is running for re-election as a Nationalist, and he is proud to be a Nationalist."
Meanwhile, also appearing on Landscape next to Chambers, was another senator who is up for re-election this year.
Conservative-turned-Democratic-Reformist Sen. Paul Ludtke of Ansleigha expressed similar sentiments about the lack of a Foreign Affairs nominee, but disagreed with Chambers on the Ukraine crisis.
"The last thing we need to do is up the rhetoric and make a military provocation. The days of Grassadellia and the United States being the world's policemen are over. Those days ended when George W. Bush and Dan Byelle left office, and we don't want to bring them back," said Ludtke. "What we need to do is put pressure on Russia diplomatically and through the seizure and freezing of assets, and also through other economic sanctions. Hit them in the pocket book. And build international public opinion against them so they are forced to stop this very provocative move."
Ludtke added that Russia's invasion of Crimea was "absolutely unjust, and a total violation of international law." But he cautioned against military involvement by Western powers.
"Military involvement should be a last resort, and I don't think we're at that point yet. But obviously, if Putin keeps marching across Europe swallowing up countries like Hitler did in the 1940's, then that would be an appropriate time to act swiftly and with decisiveness."
Ludtke was a moderate Conservative until switching parties four years ago after what he called the "lunacy of the Conservative Party" and its "obsession" with social issues.
Holding mostly libertarian views, Ludtke is an accountant and CPA by trade, and also an adjunct professor of Economics at Randolph College in Ansleigha. He is fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
It's unclear who Ludtke's opponent(s) will be in the coming fall election. Former senate candidates Mark Altberg and Jon Schauman, both Nationalists, are thought to be considering a run against him. Schauman narrowly lost to Ludtke in 2010.
Conservatives are also planning to challenge Ludtke. Former Assemblywoman McKendra Brown, a moderate pro-choice Conservative who represented the seat of Gowlinson, which encompasses Koeurn, the state's largest city, is mulling a bid.
Current Assemblywoman Tara Burlingame of Chadwick and the Donsides, an electorate based in southwest Ansleigha's coal country, is also considering a run.
However, there is concern among some in the CNS that some of Burlingame's more libertarian views may overlap with Lutke's. and that she may have more in common with the incumbent than preferred, though Burlingame is decisively more conservative on social issues.
Whichever candidates win each parties' respective nominations, the Senate race in Ansleigha will be one worth watching. A likely three-way race could result in either a close finish, or a split centre-right vote, which would virtually hand the seat to the Nationalists, who hold a sizable majority of seats in the upper house.
Appearing on the GBC's Landscape with Jim Danderfield, centrist Nationalist Sen. Vic Chambers of South Ceona said the president is taking too long to name a nominee for Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Currently, Deputy Secretary Dawnelle Hunter-Garrett is serving in an interim role, until the president announces his nominee.
Hunter-Garrett assumed in the interim position after former Secretary Jim McCaren stepped down back in February.
"I respect the president and I think he's a good man. And I respect Deputy Secretary Hunter-Garrett. But I'm concerned that our country has gone several months now without a formal leader at the Office of Foreign Affairs. It gives the appearance of a power vacuum at the Foreign Affairs Office and that weakens our image and our influence," said Chambers.
Hunter-Garrett is doing a "fine job" for the time-being, Chambers said. But he would prefer the president nominate a candidate with more experience in diplomacy.
"The Deputy Secretary is very knowledgeable, but we really need someone who has experience as a diplomat, not just a professor," said Chambers.
Hunter-Garrett was a the chair of the International Affairs program at Kinn College prior to taking the deputy secretary post.
Chambers, who is up for re-election in 2014, also urged President Menuhaeo and the international community to do more to help ease the tension in Ukraine, following Russia's forceful annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
"I think we ought to be doing more instead of just sitting idly by while (Vladimir) Putin takes what doesn't belong to him," said Chambers. "We don't have to send thousands of troops over there, but we could do more than just freezing assets in Western bank accounts."
Chambers has no opponent yet in the fall race. Several no-name Conservatives are running to challenge him in November. But he is considered potentially vulnerable, since South Ceona is a more conservative state and the minority party (the CNS this go-round) historically fares better in mid-term elections (2014 is a mid-term election).
In other words, he's not considered vulnerable yet. But he could face a tough fight for re-election, depending on which CNS candidate wins the primary and how much money party leaders and conservative activists are willing to spend on the race.
Earlier this year, rumors were circulating that Chambers might switch parties and become a Conservative. A spokeswoman for his campaign shot down that idea, saying in a statement that "Vic Chambers is running for re-election as a Nationalist, and he is proud to be a Nationalist."
Meanwhile, also appearing on Landscape next to Chambers, was another senator who is up for re-election this year.
Conservative-turned-Democratic-Reformist Sen. Paul Ludtke of Ansleigha expressed similar sentiments about the lack of a Foreign Affairs nominee, but disagreed with Chambers on the Ukraine crisis.
"The last thing we need to do is up the rhetoric and make a military provocation. The days of Grassadellia and the United States being the world's policemen are over. Those days ended when George W. Bush and Dan Byelle left office, and we don't want to bring them back," said Ludtke. "What we need to do is put pressure on Russia diplomatically and through the seizure and freezing of assets, and also through other economic sanctions. Hit them in the pocket book. And build international public opinion against them so they are forced to stop this very provocative move."
Ludtke added that Russia's invasion of Crimea was "absolutely unjust, and a total violation of international law." But he cautioned against military involvement by Western powers.
"Military involvement should be a last resort, and I don't think we're at that point yet. But obviously, if Putin keeps marching across Europe swallowing up countries like Hitler did in the 1940's, then that would be an appropriate time to act swiftly and with decisiveness."
Ludtke was a moderate Conservative until switching parties four years ago after what he called the "lunacy of the Conservative Party" and its "obsession" with social issues.
Holding mostly libertarian views, Ludtke is an accountant and CPA by trade, and also an adjunct professor of Economics at Randolph College in Ansleigha. He is fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
It's unclear who Ludtke's opponent(s) will be in the coming fall election. Former senate candidates Mark Altberg and Jon Schauman, both Nationalists, are thought to be considering a run against him. Schauman narrowly lost to Ludtke in 2010.
Conservatives are also planning to challenge Ludtke. Former Assemblywoman McKendra Brown, a moderate pro-choice Conservative who represented the seat of Gowlinson, which encompasses Koeurn, the state's largest city, is mulling a bid.
Current Assemblywoman Tara Burlingame of Chadwick and the Donsides, an electorate based in southwest Ansleigha's coal country, is also considering a run.
However, there is concern among some in the CNS that some of Burlingame's more libertarian views may overlap with Lutke's. and that she may have more in common with the incumbent than preferred, though Burlingame is decisively more conservative on social issues.
Whichever candidates win each parties' respective nominations, the Senate race in Ansleigha will be one worth watching. A likely three-way race could result in either a close finish, or a split centre-right vote, which would virtually hand the seat to the Nationalists, who hold a sizable majority of seats in the upper house.
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