Well, this would certainly throw a wrench into the plan for Democratic former Congressman Robert Wexler to campaign for Charlie Crist’s Independent bid for the U.S. Senate.
Politico reports that Wexler is being courted to be the next Ambassador to Israel:
Wexler, a strong pro-Israel ally for the Obama White House going back to the 2008 presidential campaign, has become an even more frequent presence in the White House and Foggy Bottom since resigning his House seat in January to become president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, a revived Washington think tank named after its benefactor, the Slim-Fast-heir turned Middle East peace evangelist/philanthropist.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the center’s debut at Washington’s swanky W Hotel earlier this month, where Wexler joked in his remarks that every morning he gets a call from Abraham asking him, “What are you doing to promote peace today, Robert?”
Wexler didn’t respond to a query. One U.S. official said he’d recently heard the same Wexler-for-Israel ambassador rumor, but when he asked Wexler about it, Wexler said no, he’s enjoying his current job. Another official had also heard the Wexler rumor in the past couple weeks, but didn’t know if it was true.
But several U.S. officials and Washington Middle East hands have suggested that the administration has come to consensus that it wants to put a high-impact political appointee in the Israel envoy job, as the administration aggressively steps up its public relations outreach to the Jewish community, and seeks momentum for its Middle East peace efforts.