Don Beyer Also Not Named Ambassador to Sweden…Yet! was originally published on City Desk on Apr. 07, 2009, at 2:50 pm
A rumor circulated among Falls Church expats lately holds that the great Don Beyer Jr. was going to be the next U.S. ambassador to Sweden.
There’s been no announcement from the Obama White House about replacing Bush appointee Michael Wood over in Stockholm. So the job looks open.
But, alas, Beyer, reached through staff at his Alexandria office, says nobody’s talk to him about that ambassadorship.
Again: the job’s still open. So, let’s start the Draft Beyer campaign. Now.
I’m a product of Falls Church, where Don Beyer Volvo, the flagship dealership of the Beyer automotive chain, was the biggest business.
Don Jr. ran that retail point, and was always a wondrous ambassador for the town. Seriously, other than that buffoon Jim Gilmore, nobody’s ever uttered a bad word about the guy.
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And Beyer, while helping Sweden achieve a massive trade surplus with the U.S., always represented that country’s top export fabulously: Even the cops in Falls Church used to cruise around in Volvos.
Beyer even sponsored last year’s golf tournament for the Swedish/American chamber of commerce.
“He’d be fantastic!” a woman at the Swedish/American chamber’s office tells me when I floated the ambassadorship rumor past her.
Lastly, Beyer’s a lifelong and loyal Democrat and started raising money for Obama early in the campaign. Beyer’s name has already come up in the to-the-victor-goes-the-spoils round of presidential appointments, as a possible Commerce Secretary.
“Well, that really did almost happen,” says a Beyer spokesman of the Commerce job, by way of pooh-poohing the ambassador talk.
But, long as the odds look now, should this Draft Beyer campaign succeed, I ask just one favor in return: Could the ambassador PLEASE get The Soundtrack of Our Lives to play DC again?
