A Tale of Two Women

Why is it that some folks find sustenance in table scraps while others feast at a banquet and then pee in the soup?

Deborah Jones is the go-to girl of the State Department's Middle East section.  She's like Mikey in the old cereal commercials.  When no one else wants it, give the assignment to Debbie.  She'll go anywhere.

Deborah has a BS in history from BYU and a MS from the National War College of the National Defense University.

She is a career foreign officer, having joined State in 1982.  Her assignments include Abu Dhabi, UAE, Ethopia, Iraq, Argentina and Syria.  She was principal officer at the US Consulate General in Istanbul.

From 2008 to 2011 she was ambassador to Kuwait.  I suppose if you're going to be an ambassador to anywhere in the Middle East, Kuwait would be somewhere in the middle of your dream sheet, certainly down the list from, say, Dubai, but up from, say, Yemen.  But the desert is nobody's idea of Mecca, pardon the pun.  The A-list--London, Paris, practically anywhere in Western Europe--is reserved for fat cat contributors to presidential campaigns.

But Deborah is clearly a trouper, endeavoring to persevere.  Well, guess where she's off to for her next ambassadorship.  If you said Libya, take an A.

Libya.  You know, Benghazi?  Where her predecessor was murdered in an attack on the American diplomatic mission?

Yet away she goes, smile on her face, stiff upper lip, and all the while probably wondering whom she pissed off to get her ticket punched for that suicide run into harm's way.  I mean, she has to feel like a command pilot colonel who's aiming for a star and suddenly finds himself flying a desk in Goose Bay, Labrador.

Jennifer Carroll is a retired Navy lieutenant commander (major in the real military).  She has a BA in political science from New Mexico and a MBA from Saint Leo University.  Before entering politics she ran a public relations firm.

She was Executive Director, Florida Department of Veteran Affairs and served as a state representative in the Florida House from 2003-2010.  While a representative, she continued to do work for the PR company and filmed an advertisement promoting pseudo-charity Allied Veterans of the World.  She was elected lieutenant governor in 2010.

Allied Veterans, authorities have found, is a criminal enterprise that exploited veterans to make money.  This past week, almost 60 people associated with the company were arrested on various charges, including illegal gambling, racketeering and money laundering.  When investigators started eyeballing Jenny and her association with the organization, she immediately resigned.  Afterwards, Governor Rick Scott, trying to put a positive spin on his selection of her as his running mate, referred to Jenny as "tireless" and described her as the hardest-working lieutenant governor in the country.  Impartial observers called her irrelevant and an embarrassment to Scott.

Two axioms are apropos, here:  One, no good deed goes unpunished.  And two, a person will rise in an organization to his or her level of incompetence.

Deborah Jones' career has pretty much dead-ended.  When the reward for decades of outstanding service in the backwater dregs of the planet is a posting to the Beirut (Detroit?) of Africa, you gotta be thinking of updating your resume.

Jennifer Carroll's career is just dead.  When you are on the way up and there is no limit to how high you can go, and you self-destruct, never mind the resume.  You need to start consulting an attorney and concocting a plea deal to keep out of the slam.

How ironic if Jenny avoids prison while Debbie wastes away in hers.