Tim Timken gave President Bush $800K.
Bush gave him Germany.
In the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina, with the country focused intensely on Bush's appointments to head FEMA and the DHS, along with the historic openings on the SCOTUS, now is the time for an even closer look at Bush's various nominations.
Allow me to start with one from in my own backyard...
In July, Bush nominated William R. "Tim" Timken as the new ambassador to Germany:
Timken's predecessor, former Senator Daniel Coats, drew criticism from Germans for his lack of knowledge about their country, as well as his inability to speak their language.
Germans, it appears, ain't seen nothing yet.
Timken, 66, the longtime chief of the Canton, OH roller-bearing manufacturer that bears his
family name, boasts
no diplomatic experience and
no ability to speak German. In fact,
his only asset seems to be his bloated contributions to Bush's campaigns. Asked by numerous papers to comment on Timken's qualifications, a White House spokesman has repeatedly responded only that he's an "experienced executive."
One small problem: Some of Timken's most notable executive experiences have come at the expense of German businesses. Critics charge that Timken raked in millions of dollars from German steel companies, thanks to an unfair U.S. trade law. He's been widely scorned on home soil for his anti-union stance -- a philosophy not likely to earn the embrace of Germany's heavily unionized workforce.
As Congressman Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) told Business Journal last year:
"Timken stands as a model for everything that is wrong with President Bush's incompetent handling of the U.S. economy."
In fact, many of Bush's nominations stand as a model for everything that is wrong with his incompetent handling of the United States. Need we look any further than the front pages of our local newspapers today? FEMA and the DHS, for starters.
During Bush's re-election campaign, he made time for his friends in Ohio, of course...
President Bush made an example of Timken when he visited one of its Canton facilities in 2003. Laying out his plans for job growth, Bush said to the roomful of union laborers: "Tim told me that this is a company -- 'We are a roll-up-your-sleeves company . . . it is a can-do environment.' Which is one of the reasons I've got so much optimism about the future of our economy."
Turns out optimism is all we had in Ohio... A year later, Timken announced plans to close three local plants and lay off 1,300 workers.
"They're hard-line business people," says Dan Sciury, president of the Canton AFL-CIO and a third-generation Timken employee. "They're tough negotiators. But you can't argue with their success."
Timken's reputation in Germany would suggest otherwise.
In 2000, President Clinton approved a new import tariff on foreign steel, in response to a growing fear that foreign manufacturers were selling it to us for less than it costs to make, which in turn places U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage. The so-called Byrd Amendment calls for distributing the new tax money to American manufacturers who have filled out the proper paperwork. In its first year, only Timken and the Torrington company (which Timken has since bought out) pursued the free money.
In essence, Timken benefited from both the mandatory higher prices of German steel and the subsidy from the new tax. In 2004 alone, it collected $52.7 million from foreign steel manufacturers, according to a story in the German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Eleven nations filed complaints with the World Trade Organization, which ruled the subsidies unfair in 2002.
So what has Bush done about this?
President Bush has ignored the WTO's demands to repeal it.
Ignored it? OK. And why would he do THAT?
(Bush's) allegiance to Timken runs deep, and not without good reason: Timken's family donated $568,239 to Bush between 2000 and 2004 -- earning him "Ranger" status, a titled reserved for top contributors. For Bush's second inaugural bash, the Timken Company kicked in an additional $250,000.
So Timken has thrown a little money the presidents way? ($818,239 to be exact.) So Diebold, on whose board Tim Timken served for 19 years, promised to deliver the 2004 election to Bush? What's the big fuss? It's not like $800K and a hand-delivered election buys you an ambassadorship... Or does it?
Selling ambassadorships is a time-honored tradition among presidents, but
Bush is in a class by himself. This year alone, he has nominated eight $100,000-plus fund-raisers to ambassadorships; since 2000, 30 top fund-raisers have been rewarded. Our ambassador to Britain is a car dealer from California.
"If you contribute enough money to the President and his political party and express an interest in becoming an ambassador, you will get an appointment," says Steve Weiss of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit watchdog in Washington, D.C.
So that's what happens. Now onto Germany...
Hello Germany, meet Tim Timken!
When Tim Timken made his first official appearance in Berlin on August 24, he opened his remarks with "Guten Morgen, meine Damen und Herren." He then switched to English, never reverting to the native tongue of his hosts.
Rainer Brüderle, head of Germany's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, told Der Spiegel that Timken's nomination should prompt the U.S. to "distance itself from the policies of the Byrd Amendment." Few other German politicians have offered up comment on the new ambassador.
We see the Germans aren't in a very talkative mood.
At this point, virtually no one is talking. Requests for an interview with Timken were declined by an embassy spokesman in Berlin.
The Timken Company and
Diebold,
upon whose board he served for 19 years, also declined interviews, and the White House did not respond to messages. For a dignitary charged with opening the channels of communication, it seems a dubious honeymoon.
Mark Cassell, a political-science professor at Kent State, worries that Timken's appointment will only deteriorate U.S.-German relations.
"It feeds the stereotypes Germans have of Americans," he says. "That we're self-centered and care only about the United States."
Back in the United States, The White House had this lengthy praise for Timken:
He's an "experienced executive."