Bush selects Skull & Bones man for new Australia Ambassador

TONY EASTLEY: He’s an old mate of the President, a former tobacco industry lawyer and now one of the Bush administration’s most senior legal officers.

Robert McCallum is the new US Ambassador to Australia that they were talking about in that last story, and he brings a diverse background to a job that’s stood vacant for more than 12 months.

The Federal Government has welcomed the appointment, but before he can pack his bags, Mr McCallum first has to survive what could be a rocky Senate confirmation hearing.

Mr McCallum, the number three man at the US Justice Department, has been engulfed in a political row over the prosecution of tobacco companies for misleading American smokers.

Washington Correspondent Michael Rowland reports.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: He may not be a career diplomat, but Robert McCallum will certainly have the ear of President Bush when he arrives in Canberra. The two men studied together in the 1960s at Yale University, and were members of the elite but very secretive Skull and Bones Society.

Mr Bush has already tapped a number of so-called “Bones men” for senior administration positions.

The next step now for Robert McCallum is to win the approval of the US Senate’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, and there are signs the nominee may not be in for an easy ride.

Early in his legal career, Mr McCallum, as a partner at Atlanta law firm Alston and Bird, represented big tobacco companies. Later, as Associate Attorney General at the US Justice Department, he oversaw the Government’s pursuit of cigarette companies for misleading smokers about the dangers of their products.

ROBERT MCCALLUM: The Government will present evidence of a massive 50-year scheme to defraud the public, and in particular substantial evidence relating to the defendant’s past and continuing efforts to market cigarettes to young people, despite the defendant’s representations to the contrary.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Last June, the Justice Department suddenly slashed the amount of damages it was seeking from the tobacco giants, from $180-billion to $13-billion, a cut of more than 90 per cent.

The move infuriated anti-smoking groups and senior Democrat politicians, who alleged that Mr McCallum and other political appointees at the department pressured the trial lawyers to reduce the damages amount.

Fifty Democrat lawmakers, including New York Senator Hilary Clinton and 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding an internal investigation into just why the proposed penalty was so massively cut.

The Justice Department says the reduced amount was based on the merits of the case.

Given the heat the issue aroused it’s more than likely to get an airing at Mr McCallum’s Senate confirmation hearing, due sometime over the next few weeks.

It could be a baptism of fire for America’s newest ambassador.

AM