He quit but insists he wasn’t doing to her what many say the Bush administration is doing to the country:
Randall L. Tobias, the deputy secretary of state responsible for U.S. foreign aid, abruptly resigned yesterday after he was asked about an upscale escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, U.S. government sources said.
Tobias resigned after ABC News contacted him with questions about the escort service, the sources said. ABC News released a statement last night saying Tobias acknowledged Thursday that he had used the service to provide massages, not sex.
Tobias has been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s point man in an ambitious effort to overhaul how the U.S. government manages foreign aid, a key part of her “transformational diplomacy” agenda. Just two days ago, President Bush lauded Tobias for his work in the administration leading “America’s monumental effort to confront and deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the continent of Africa.”
So he was considered a hands-on diplomat. MORE:
In an unusual statement issued at 5 p.m., State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tobias informed Rice “today that he must step down as Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator effective immediately. He is returning to private life for personal reasons.”
Contacted last night at his home in the District, Tobias, a former chief executive of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co., declined to discuss the circumstances of his resignation, saying he would “stick with the statement the State Department released today.”
According to ABC News, Tobias said he contacted the escort service “to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage” and that there had been “no sex” involved.
Two things:
(1) It’s notable that this was done on a Friday afternoon, generally considered the weakest part of the news cycle. The release of news at that time is generally considered a way to try and get info out with the minimum chance that it gets out extensively.
(2) Let’s get the spin refrain over now: “But under Clinton………”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.