White House drops ambassadorial nomination of Swift Boat backer

The White House abruptly withdrew Sam Fox’s ambassadorial nomination yesterday, facing growing opposition from Democrats irate at Fox’s refusal to renounce his contribution to the 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

The Fox pullback marks a striking turnaround for the administration since 2004, when President Bush bested Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) after a series of influential — and later debunked — Swift Boat-sponsored ads questioned the validity of Kerry’s Vietnam medals. Kerry led the Foreign Relations Committee in pressing Fox last month to explain his $50,000 donation to Swift Boat, but Fox’s lack of contrition became an insurmountable obstacle for panel Democrats.

“Sam Fox had every opportunity to disavow the politics of personal destruction and embrace the truth. He chose not to,” Kerry said in a statement, adding that the White House made the right decision in pulling Fox 30 minutes before the Foreign Relations panel’s scheduled vote. The Missouri business magnate would have become the U.S. ambassador to Belgium.

The Foreign Relations Committee is famed for its cadre of 2008 presidential rivals, several of whom backed Kerry in opposing Fox. One of them, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), released a statement calling the Swift Boat group “American politics at its worst.”

“While I believe Mr. Fox cares about serving this country, his statements just didn’t add up,” Obama said. “I had serious concerns about Mr. Fox’s candor, judgment, and qualifications for this important post, and I am pleased that the Bush administration acknowledged that it would not be able to muster the votes.”

Kerry said earlier this week that he had not discussed the likely vote count with panel Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del.), and said his colleagues should “do what they think is right.” Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.), vying with Biden and Obama for the nomination Kerry won in 2004, sided with Kerry even before the vote.

Fox’s “unwillingness to denounce the reprehensible activities of the Swift Boat organization and express regret for providing $50,000 to bankroll the organization convinced me that he would not be an acceptable candidate to represent the United States abroad,” Dodd said in a statement. He urged the White House to propose a new nominee who “can represent the United States in the best possible light.”

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino nodded to the new political realities during her briefing yesterday. “We are disappointed they made their decision based on partisan politics instead of his leadership abilities,” she said.

Asked about his Swift Boat donation, Fox told Kerry during his Feb. 27 confirmation hearing that he has “always been against 527s … they are mean and destructive.” He endorsed legislative limits on 527 spending, including an outright ban, but said donating to the outside groups is necessary if “the other side is doing it.”

But Fox did not apologize or renounce the move, and 11 Naval veterans who served alongside Kerry wrote to Biden this week urging the committee to nix Fox.

“[Kerry] wasn’t alone in having his military record falsely impugned,” the veterans wrote. “For us, this is personal.”