David Adelman nominated for Singapore ambassador
November 19, 2009 at 9:48 pm by Scott Henry in News
President Barack Obama today named state Sen. David Adelman, D-Atlanta, as his pick to become the next U.S. ambassador to Singapore.
Adelman’s served four terms under the Gold Dome and has a well-earned reputation as one of the more progressive — and politically savvy — politicos. He wasn’t able to talk about the nomination on the record, instead referring us to the White House press release, which reads thusly:
David Adelman, Nominee for Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore
David Adelman has been a member of the State of Georgia Senate since being elected in 2002. He serves as Minority Whip and Chairman of the Urban Affairs Committee.
Senator Adelman is an equity partner in the firm Sutherland Asbill and Brennan LLP where he has practiced law since 1993 representing energy and communications companies. Prior to entering private practice, Senator Adelman was an Assistant Attorney General in Georgia for three years. In addition to his commercial practice, for many years Senator Adelman has represented veterans pro bono before the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
He has been active in his community on domestic violence issues and served on the Board of the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority. Senator Adelman graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.A. and received an M.P.A. from Georgia State University and a J.D. from the Emory University School of Law.
We assume this means Adelman’s on his way to the Malay Peninsula. After all, one simply doesn’t turn down ambassadorships and this one’s a plum. Singapore, the world’s largest city-state (the other ones are Monaco and the Vatican) is also the business hub of Southeast Asia and a strategically important U.S. ally.
Singapore is also home to the world-famous Raffles Hotel, a luxurious holdover from British colonial days and also the place where the Singapore Sling cocktail was invented, appropriately enough. Enjoy one for us, David.
(H/T to the AJC’s Aaron Gould Sheinin)
November 20th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Horrible choice. Not qualified. Obvious political patronage job. However, it is really inconsequential. These jobs are mostly ceremonial anyway. Policy decisions are made by headquarters in D.C. Ambassador type jobs were important in the days of sailing ships when news might take months to arrive and the Govt. needed someone on the scene to make on-the-spot substantive foreign policy decisions. Those days are long gone and the ambassador job is an archaic relic. Besides, Adelman couldn’t deliver the state for Obama anyway.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
@Lonny: Let me get this straight: The position is ceremonial — but Adelman is unqualified? I admit I’m baffled by that logic.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 am
Substitute “and” for “but” in your construction and the logic works perfectly.