The new Obama administration has made a fine old mess of this one:

When the vice president, the secretary of state and the national security adviser all say you have been tapped to be the next United States ambassador to Iraq, odds are it’s a done deal, right?

Apparently not in the Obama administration.

Is R Holbrooke back in business?

FUBAR SNAFU indeed:

Regardless of who was responsible, this was handled really, really badly. 

Rule one of job searches is that you never give someone the impression that they’re your top candidate, even if they are — both because you haven’t made a final decision and because you don’t want to give them leverage in the subsequent final negotiations.

Rule two is that you always call other finalists the minute that someone else accepts the job.

Whoever was responsible for managing this — Jones, Clinton, one of their subordinates — broke both those rules.  No, I take that back.  They didn’t break them.  They threw them over a cliff.

Hope! Change!