Waiting for Gutman (to Stop Being Such a Sleazeball)

Sexual hanky-panky in the diplomatic corps? I'm pretty sure it happens all the time. However, this dude sounds particularly slimy:

The most egregious in a list of potentially explosive stories involves Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium who was accused of routinely ditching his security detail and then soliciting prostitutes, including minors. But Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management, ordered the investigation shut down. Gutman was apparently given a stern lecture but otherwise got off without any sanctions and is still serving as America’s envoy in Brussels. According to the State Department report, Gutman’s security detail and staff were well aware of what he was up to. 

Gutman first came to our attention back at the end of 2011 for declaring that Israel was to blame for the rise of anti-Semitism in contemporary Europe. That might have been enough to end a normal diplomatic career but Gutman, who earned his post by bundling more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions for President Obama, hung onto his job with no trouble as a State Department spokesman said the views Gutman expressed were his own rather than official U.S. policy. 

The implication of the shutting down of an investigation into Gutman’s behavior is clear. Senior people at the State Department, including those who report to Clinton, were obviously under the impression that a scandal involving in a major Obama giver and appointee would be political poison for the president during an election year...

The question must be asked: if neither the Rev. Jeremiah Wright story (prior to Obama's first election) nor four-dead-in-Benghazi-o (prior to his reelection) poisoned Barack's political chances, could anything have?  Given the besotted, in-the-tank media and Obama's status as The First African-American President in History, I tend to doubt it.