US envoy to India may leave soon

WASHINGTON: The American envoy to India may soon be on his way back to the United States. According to the Washington grapevine, Ambassador David Mulford is tipped to take over from Treasury Secretary John Snow as part of the ongoing changes in the Bush administration.
Mulford could not be reached for confirmation or comment but reports said he had already been sounded out for the top job in his old stomping ground.He had earlier served as Assistant Secretary and Undersecretary for International Affairs in the Department of Treasury during the Reagan second term and Bush Sr term before going on to become an international banker and serving as CEO of European operations of the Credit Suisse First Boston.
Reaching the pinnacle in the Treasury Department -- a job once held by Alexander Hamilton -- under Dubya would be a grand finale for a Republican faithful. The only thing holding back Mulford's new appointment would be the US-India nuclear deal, which is at a delicate stage with a probable closure in June.
No word yet on Mulford's successor -- or whether he has even accepted the offer -- but a strong candidate for the job would be Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is the architect of the nuclear accord, and who, after previously serving as US envoy to Greece and Nato, has found his metier in US interests in the subcontinent.
State Department sources said they had only heard of Mulford's impending appointment on the grapevine but there was no official intimation of the same.
Mulford was nominated to serve as Washington's 21st ambassador to India (Chester Bowles was twice envoy) in November 2003. He succeeded Robert Blackwill and took up his assignment in January 2004, so he is some eight months shy of the three-year stint that envoys typically enjoy.
Although Mulford built on Blackwill's work and oversaw further strengthening of US-India ties, including the possible conclusion of the nuclear accord, his stint has not been without some wrinkles. He was not the most popular man in South Block ahead of the Bush visit because of his controversial statements and demands. At one point he got into a spat with the MEA for attempting to 'hijack' the Bush event in Lal Qila.
While the Mulford appointment to Treasury in place of John Snow is still in the works, Bush has already brought in another Snow as the White House spokesman -- Fox News anchor Tony Snow. In fact, the joke in the blogworld is that Bush has sounded Fox News' business anchor Neil Cavuto as the next Treasury Secretary.
Not that Mulford will be coming to a bed of roses. Some analysts maintain that the US economy is in terminal decline because of needless tax breaks and military excesses and it will require a tough-minded steward to arrest the slide.
Suggesting that Snow is being made a scapegoat, syndicated columnist Marianne Means wrote last week that ''what will be really interesting is which partisan dummy is next willing to sell his or her credentials for the treasury title and the inevitable ensuing embarrassment.''
The answer will be known presently. Mulford has been in Washington these days, batting for the nuclear deal among other things.