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By Dale McFeatters
Scripps Howard News Service
The European Union can't be accused of being dazzled by celebrity and star power in its choices for its first president and first foreign minister under the recently ratified Lisbon Treaty.
The 27 nations bypassed America's favorite Brit, Tony Blair, in favor of little-known Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and the even-more-obscure Catherine Ashton, currently the EU trade commissioner.
Ashton seemed as surprised as everybody else by her selection. The Briton has never before held elected office, and she has no foreign-policy experience, even though she will now head the EU's 3,000-person diplomatic corps.
The Associated Press began its story on her new job by describing her as ``an international woman of mystery."
Neither one has much experience in their current jobs, for that matter. Van Rompuy, a last-minute compromise candidate for the job, has been prime minister only 11 months. Ashton ― the baroness is a member of the House of Lords ― has been trade commissioner for only 13 months.
Fatal to Blair's chances were his close identification with the United States and his early and unswerving support for the Iraq war.
The impasse over the presidency was broken only when Blair's successor as prime minister, Gordon Brown, dropped his support for his predecessor.
There were likely other factors as well. The duties of the two offices are still undefined ― indeed, many believe the foreign-policy post may be the more powerful position ― and the EU likely did not want a strong personality like Blair defining it.
Then, too, Blair, a gifted orator and politician, might have outshone some of the large egos that are Western European heads of government. With Van Rompuy and Ashton in place, there seems little danger of that happening.
Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer of Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).
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