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John Thomas "Tom" Schieffer (born October 4, 1947) has been the United States Ambassador to Australia since August 2001. A friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush, Schieffer has been a highly visible defender of the policies of the Bush Administration, and has been accused by some Australian politicians of interference in Australian politics. In 2004 his brother Bob Schieffer was the moderator of the third presidential debate between Bush and John Kerry.
Schieffer was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended the University of Texas in Austin, where he received a masters in international relations in 1972. While still in college he worked in the offices of State Senator Don Kennard and Governor John Connally. In 1972 he was elected as a Democrat to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served three terms before being defeated in 1978.
Schieffer was admitted to the bar in 1979 and became a corporate lawyer in Fort Worth, specialising in the oil and gas industry. At this time he belonged to the conseravtive wing of the Texas Democratic Party associated with Connolly and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. He was the Fort Worth area co-ordinator for Democratic Governor Mark White's election campaigns.
In 1989, however, Schieffer became a partner of George W. Bush and Edward W. Rose in Ballpark Development, the company which bought the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. He invested US$1.4 million in the venture, and was responsible for the operations of the company as well as the building of The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. By the time Bush was elected Republican Governor of Texas in 1994, Schieffer was identified as a political supporter.
The partnership sold the team in June 1998, with all the partners making very large profits, but Schieffer stayed on as until April 1999, when he resigned to become a consultant. He then formed the J. Thomas Schieffer Management Company, which he headed until he was nominated as U.S. Ambassador to Australia by the incoming Bush Administration in 2001. He also served on the boards of the Penrose Foundation, the Dallas County Community College Foundation, the Dallas 2012 Olympic Committee, the Tarrant County College Foundation and the Winston School. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce where he co-chaired the Legislative Affairs Committee.
Schieffer presented his credentials in Canberra on August 23, 2001. The fact that he was obviously a political appointment aroused no hostile comment in Australia, since this has nearly always been the case with U.S. ambassadors to Australia. Australian governments have usually valued the fact that the U.S. Ambassador has had personal links to the President of the day.
Within weeks of Schieffer's arrival in Canberra the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States made him a prominent figure in Australia. On the day of the attacks he was in Washington, D.C, accompanying visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard. In Australia he made frequent media appearances and spoke at memorial services and other meetings which condemned the attacks. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks he commanded bipartisan respect among Australian politicians.
During 2002 and 2003, however, Schieffer came under increasing criticism for his closeness to the conservative Howard government, which was a prominent ally of the Bush administration before and during the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Scieffer's relations with the opposition Australian Labor Party deteriorated after the November 2001 election, when Simon Crean replaced the pro-American Kim Beazley as leader. In June 2003 Crean criticised Schieffer for speaking at a Liberal Party fundraising function for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
The Ambassador's relations were even more strained with Mark Latham, who replaced Crean as Labor leader in December 2003. Latham had previously described Bush as incompetent and dangerous. Although Latham and his foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, met with Schieffer shortly after Latham's election, Latham's pledge in March 2004 to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq ensured that his relations with Schieffer remained cool.
Following Latham's pledge Schieffer said that such a policy would encourage terrorist attacks such as the Madrid bombings. "I'm afraid that just invites more political bombings and that's why I think that we have to be very careful here," he said. "I hope that Mr Latham on consideration will review what he has said and will come to a different conclusion because I think it's important that we stay united."
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said in response: "It's up to the Ambassador to talk about U.S. policy, it's up to Australia to determine what's in Australia's interests." Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown sharply criticised Schieffer's comments. "It is untenable to have a diplomat meddling in domestic policies as he is doing, again, on the issue of withdrawing troops from Iraq," Brown said. "As with Vietnam, it is Australia's prerogative."
In May 2004 Schieffer gave an interview to veteran Australian political journalist Laurie Oakes. He said that "there's no question the President and the Prime Minister have a close personal relationship," and that "The President values the Prime Minister's counsel, and it has been given freely and openly over this three-year period." Asked about his attitude to Latham, Schieffer said: "I'm not going to get into that. Who represents Australia is Australia's business."
Asked his attitude to Latham's commitment to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq, Schieffer said: "I think that that would be a difficult thing. Because I think it would make the situation in Iraq quite - more problematic... There's no question that we would like for Australia to support our efforts in Iraq, as they have in the past."
After Bush's victory in the November 2004 presidential election, Schieffer announced that he would not be serving another term in Canberra, and would return to the United States when a successor was appointed. The White House announced in January 2005 President Bush's intention to nominate Schieffer to be US ambassador to Japan.
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