Chris Hill Update: Man Tells Lie, Lie Catches Up With Man, Dog Bites Man

The Washington Times, reporting that Senator Brownback is increasingly open in his threat to hold Chris Hill’s nomination as Ambassador to Iraq, relates just the latest story of Hill misleading a member of Congress:

In [a] hearing on July 31, in response to a request to bring Jay Lefkowitz, who was a special envoy for North Korea human rights, to future talks, Mr. Hill said, “I would be happy to invite him to all future negotiating sessions with North Korea.”

When contacted Thursday, Mr. Lefkowitz said he was not invited to any talks with North Korea after Mr. Hill’s promise.

“I can certainly understand why Senator Brownback is upset because, in point of fact, even after Ambassador Hill’s commitment to the senator last summer, human rights never found its way into the six-party talks,” Mr. Lefkowitz said.

Mr. Brownback told The Times that Mr. Hill “did mislead me in open testimony before the Armed Services Committee.” [Washington Times]

The Weekly Standard blog has more of the latest on how Brownback is standing firm, and surveying some of the embarrassing arguments in Hill’s defense. One argument that no one should make is that Brownback is doing this for partisan reasons. It wasn’t a Democrat who nominated Kathleen Stephens, after all.

The administration is drawing serving military officers into politics by asking them to publicly support Hill’s confirmation, and from the perspective of generals Petraeus and Odierno, this must be a very easy choice to make. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing what their commander in chief asks. Whether Hill becomes ambassador or not, they don’t want Holbrooke holding a grudge against them (assuming he survives that whole AIG thing). They may also need some points in the bank with this administration if they want to stretch out a withdrawal timeline or plead for an extra brigade if the security situation hits a rough patch. On the other hand, Petraeus and Odierno know that they have the support of McCain, Graham, and most congressional Republicans no matter what. As they should, for the best of reasons.

A much less convincing argument the administration is making is that we can’t afford to leave the post of ambassador vacant at this critical time. But who ever asked them to leave it vacant? Obama could make this same dumb argument if he’d nominated Carrot Top for the job, and frankly, it’s a statistical fact that this is the least critical time for Iraq since the invasion, thanks to the mostly unheralded brilliance of our counterinsurgency campaign there. In that light, it would seem more important to choose well than to choose quickly. Surely there are dozens of better qualified candidates within arm’s reach of Holbrooke or Clinton with more experience with the region, counterinsurgency, or even minimally effective diplomacy. Hill’s atrocious performance in dealing with North Korea and his increasingly obvious character shortcomings show us just how quickly and easily the President could do far better than picking a congenital liar to lead our most important diplomatic mission.

For new readers measuring the length of Hill’s nose, start here.