Minnesotans pushing back against Obama’s Norway ambassador pick

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WASHINGTON — He has never visited the country. He called a party within the governing coalition a “fringe” group. He didn’t offer any ideas on how to grow trade.

Days after George Tsunis, President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Norway, gave unsteady testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing, a group of Minnesotans took up the cause of preventing the New York businessman from getting the post.

Minnesota is the natural place to raise such a movement. It has the largest Norwegian-American population in the United States, and it’s home to major Norwegian groups like the Sons of Norway International. After Tsunis’ rough testimony, Twin Cities attorney T. Michael Davis organized a campaign to either win Norway a new nominee, or, if all else fails, see that the Senate votes down Tsunis’ appointment.

“We want the American citizens to have a qualified ambassador in Oslo, and we want the government in Oslo to be dealing with a qualified ambassador,” said Davis, a member of the state’s Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce. “This is just basic common sense.”

Davis and his allies, backed by a broader group of people within Minnesota’s Norwegian-American community, penned a Star Tribune op-ed to that effect last week, but that’s just the most public display of the group’s discontent.

Davis wrote White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough directly about the nomination. He spoke to staffers for both Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, who will vote on Tsunis’ confirmation if he comes to the Senate floor, and who say they’re concerned about his nomination, as well as officials with Reps. Erik Paulsen and Betty McCollum, co-chairs of the Friends of Norway Caucus in the House.

Bruce Gjovig, the chairman of the University of North Dakota’s Nordic Initiative, said he did the same with his congressional delegation, and that others in Wisconsin and Iowa are doing the same. Many high-profile Norweigan-Americans have signed an online petition to get Tsunis’ nomination taken off the table.

“He lost credibility with the people of Norway right from the get-go with his comments during this hearing,” Gjovig said. “You don’t get that credibility back very easily.”

Shaky testimony

Davis said he hadn’t worried about Tsunis’ qualifications for the job until the nominee testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Jan. 23. That went so poorly that Davis considers him “damaged goods.”

Tsunis stumbled badly through a series of questions about what he would do as ambassador to the country. He told the committee he’s never been to Norway. He gave a string of stats about American-Norwegian trade, but, when asked, couldn’t say what he’d do to expand it. Under heavy questioning from Sen. John McCain — who has criticized several of Obama’s foreign affairs nominations — Tsunis called the country’s Progress Party “fringe elements” that “spew hatred” because of its tough stance on immigration policy.

The Progress Party is actually Norway’s third largest party, and a member of the country’s parliamentary ruling coalition. (Tsunis also said the country has a president, when in fact it’s a constitutional monarchy.)

Norwegians were not pleased. The Local, an English-language Norwegian news service, has hammered Tsunis as “blundering” and “displaying total ignorance.” A Progress Party spokesman asked Obama to apologize for Tsunis’ testimony.

Klobuchar, Franken: ‘Concerns’

Tsunis didn’t endear him with lawmakers, either.

In statements, both Minnesota senators said they were unsettled by Tsunis’ performance. Klobuchar said she has “significant concerns” with his nomination, and “I will be speaking with members of the Norwegian-American community to discuss it in the coming weeks.”

“I was very troubled by the testimony Mr. Tsunis gave during his confirmation hearing,” Franken said. “And I have very serious concerns about whether he’s up to the job.”

Though the House has no vote on presidential appointments, McCollum said she’s followed Tsunis closely since he was nominated. She said she and others in the Friends of Norway Caucus were surprised his testimony.

“I’m sure he’s a lovely person, but it would seem to me that if I was going to be front of a Senate confirmation hearing to become an ambassador of the United States, I would have been reading about the culture and the politics and had myself up to date with what’s going on,” she said.

Asked about Tsunis’ testimony days later, White House spokesman Jay Carney said he hadn’t seen the committee hearing, but, “the President has confidence in all of the nominees he’s put forward for ambassadorial positions as well as other positions in the administration, in the government.”

Tsunis a political appointee

Tsunis was a major bundler for Obama, raising nearly $850,000 for his 2012 re-election campaign, according to the Center on Responsive Politics.

He’s what’s called a political appointee, meaning he doesn’t come from the ranks of career diplomats. Appointments like his are far from rare, and presidents have long rewarded political allies with posh ambassadorships.

They’re often not as controversial as Tsunis (who was mocked on the Daily Show last week alongside a handful of other Obama political appointees). Minneapolis attorney and major Democratic donor Sam Kaplan served as Obama’s ambassador to Morocco for three and a half years, and Walter Mondale was ambassador to Japan under Bill Clinton. By all accounts, the Japanese have embraced their new ambassador, Caroline Kennedy.

“There’s not really a bright line between whether you’re career or not and your effectiveness, really,” said Benson Whitney, a Minnesota businessman who served as ambassador to Norway under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama. “There are some great non-career ambassadors and some great career ambassadors. And there have been crummy career ambassadors and some crummy non-career ambassadors.”

Whitney, a member of an advisory council at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, observed what he called the “well-deserved tradition” of not speaking ill of his potential successor.

He admitted he wasn’t terribly active in the Norwegian-American community before his appointment, and he’d only visited the country as a child. But, “I worked very hard to understand the society and the government and the institutions because that’s a part of being an effective advocate for the president and the people and the United States,” he said.

For their part, Davis and others worry Tsunis’ stumbles may have already undone his potential effectiveness as ambassador. Davis suggested Obama appoint someone new for Norway and give Tsunis a fresh start with a diplomatic mission elsewhere.

“They’ll treat [Tsunis] with respect, but no one will have respect for him,” Davis said. “President Obama has a good legacy, his perception is good over there, but if this is pushed, that’s also going to be ruined.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry