Victor Ashe
Victor Ashe (diplomat) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | 1 January 1945 Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | US | ||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Groton School, Hotchkiss School, Yale University, University of Tennessee College of Law | ||||||||||||||||||||
Member of | Center for European Policy Analysis, Skull and Bones | ||||||||||||||||||||
Interests | George W. Bush | ||||||||||||||||||||
Party | Republican | ||||||||||||||||||||
Kentucky fellow Bonesman, roommate and cheerleader with George W. Bush, who was appointed Ambassador Poland from 2004 until 2009. Bohemian Grove
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Victor Henderson Ashe II is an American former diplomat and politician.
A fellow Bonesman, roommate and cheerleader with George W. Bush[1], he was elected at age 23 to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1968. From 1987 to 2004, he was mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee. He is also a member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco[2], and has thus attended Bohemian Grove meetings.
He was appointed United States Ambassador to Poland by Bush from 2004 until 2009,[3] and then a member of the government propaganda Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Contents
Early career
Ashe was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended the establishment Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts and subsequently the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University in 1967 with a BA in history. At Yale, Ashe was a member of the Skull and Bones society, as was George W. Bush.
In 1974 he got his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Before becoming an elected official, Ashe worked as an intern for Congressman Bill Brock, and as a staff assistant for Senator Howard Baker.
In 1968 Ashe was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives; he was only 23 years old at the time. After sitting three terms in the State House, Ashe won the August 1974 Republican primary for a Tennessee Senate seat representing Knox County, Tennessee. In a lawsuit brought by a former legislator Ashe had defeated in 1972, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Ashe ineligible to be the Republican nominee as he would not meet the minimum age qualification of 30 on the day of the general election in November.[4] The Knox County GOP then nominated his mother, Martha Ashe, to replace him as the nominee. She was elected by the voters with the promise to resign in January 1975 when Ashe turned 30. Upon her resignation the Knox County Commission appointed Victor Ashe to replace her;[5][6] he was later elected to the position and sat for nine years.
From 1967 to 1973, during the Vietnam War, Ashe was a member of the United States Marine Corps Air Reserves. He was also the Executive Director of the Americans Outdoors Commission from 1985 until 1987.[5]
Ashe was a Republican. A family friend of the Bushes, he was George H.W. Bush's Tennessee campaign manager in 1980 during Bush's first run for president.[1]
He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1984 against future Vice President Al Gore.[7]
Mayor
Ashe was elected to be the mayor of Knoxville in November 1987. He sat for 16 years as mayor, the longest term in the city's history.
Ambassador to Poland
He was a Resident fellow at the Institute Politics at the John F. Kennedy School Government, Harvard University in 2004.[8]
Ashe was sworn in as a US ambassador to Poland in June 2004[9].
Broadcasting Board of Governors
Ashe sat on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the body which supervises the federal agencies which broadcast propaganda to foreign countries. In a 2013 report by the Office of Inspector General, Ashe was criticized as a board member "whose tactics and personal attacks on colleagues and staff have created an unprofessional and unproductive atmosphere". Ashe was not directly named, but referred to as a "former mayor," a description which fits only him. Ashe called the report "unwarranted, unfair and factually incorrect" and in his defense pointed to his support from labor.[10]
References
- ↑ a b https://www.wbir.com/article/news/former-knoxville-mayor-victor-ashe-reflects-on-friendship-with-president-george-hw-bush/51-619580932
- ↑ https://volopedia.lib.utk.edu/entries/victor-henderson-ashe/
- ↑ U.S. Embassy in Warsaw
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080112220220/http://piratenews.org/comer_v_ashe_election_fraud.html
- ↑ a b United States Diplomatic Mission to Warsaw Biography, last accessed June 17, 2015
- ↑ "Ashe takes the oath as ambassador." Knoxville News-Sentinel, June 24, 2004.
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/obituaries/us/edward-e-mcateer-78-empowered-christian-right.html?_r=0
- ↑ https://prabook.com/web/victor_henderson.ashe/879646
- ↑ "Ashe takes the oath as ambassador." Knoxville News-Sentinel, June 24, 2004
- ↑ Davidson, Joe, "Report blasts foreign broadcasting board as ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘ineffectual’", Washington Post Federal Diary, January 22, 2013; with links to the IG report and the union statement in Ashe's support. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
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