Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton goes to bat for former U.S. Rep. Mark Green's appointment to become the next U.S. ambassador to Tanzania



Wisconsin Lt. Governor Lawton, who with Gov. Jim Doyle was engaged in an emotional election fight with Green a year ago, sent a letter Thursday to Sen. John Kerry encouraging him to lift the hold on the nomination. Friday, Kerry did so, and the Senate confirmed Green later in the day.

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton goes to bat for former U.S. Rep. Mark Green's appointment to become the next U.S. ambassador to Tanzania

Green's ambassadorship

Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton is to be commended for putting partisan politics aside and going to bat for former U.S. Rep. Mark Green's appointment to become the next U.S. ambassador to Tanzania.

Lawton, who with Gov. Jim Doyle was engaged in an emotional election fight with Green a year ago, sent a letter Thursday to Sen. John Kerry encouraging him to lift the hold on the nomination. Friday, Kerry did so, and the Senate confirmed Green later in the day.

"After discussions with members of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Wisconsin delegation and after meeting with Mark Green personally this week, Sen. Kerry chose to lift his hold on Green's nomination," said Amy Brundage, a spokeswoman for the senator.

"Mark Green is of Africa, he has family there [and] he has a long, deep connection that was only strengthened with his term in the Peace Corps in Kenya," Lawton wrote. That information was always out there for Kerry to know, and we're relieved he has finally acknowledged how wrong he was about Green.

Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: August, 2007; Peace Corps Tanzania; Directory of Tanzania RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Tanzania RPCVs; Diplomacy; Congress

When this story was posted in August 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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