What's With These Guys??

What is it with Republican political figures and the people they hire? The San Francisco Chronicle brings us a picture of the state GOP:

Michael Kamburowski, the Australian immigrant hired as a top official in the California Republican Party, was ordered deported in 2001, jailed three years later for visa violations -- and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to U.S. District Court documents.

Kamburowski was named in March to be the chief operating officer of the California GOP. He is responsible for the state party's multimillion-dollar budget and oversees campaign funds and financing for the nation's largest state GOP organization.

As the state GOP's new operating officer, the 35-year-old Kamburowski was handpicked for the post by state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, who became party chief in February.

Kamburowski is a former registered lobbyist for Americans for Tax Reform and a top operative for the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, both founded by conservative activist Grover Norquist. Nehring -- also a former senior adviser and consultant to Norquist's Washington, D.C., operation -- worked with Kamburowski at Americans for Tax Reform in the 1990s.

Gee, it kinda puts a weird twist on the whole 'illegal immigrants taking American jobs' thing, doesn't it?

And he's not the only foreigner working for the California Republicans.

News of Kamburowski's troubled immigration past comes on the heels of revelations in The Chronicle earlier this month that the state GOP used a highly sought-after H1B visa to hire another immigrant as a top consultant.

Christopher Matthews, a Canadian citizen with no experience in statewide politics, was hired this month after the California Republican party applied for, and received, an H1B visa specifically to fill the role of "political director,'' according to U.S. Department of Labor data.

Frankly, it seems odd to me that there is such a dearth of native political operatives in the United States that they would need to use the H1B visa program to import one from Canada, where, after all, they have a parliamentary political system involving 'ministers' and 'ridings' and such. One assumes he would, indeed, have no experience in statewide politics, since they have provinces up there, not states. In fact, one wonders how he qualified for an H1B position, since that program is intended for jobs that require theoretical and practical application of a specialized field of knowledge, and while 'political director' may be one, does he have that knowledge?

The article does go on to detail that Kamburowski (the Australian, not the Canadian) claims he does have a green card, and is tangled up in a dispute with the authorities about his status, involving a marriage to an American, a divorce, and another marriage to an American. So maybe he isn't actually illegal. He's still Australian, though. (Note: not naturalized Austrian, like the Governator.) Though that, apparently, didn't stop him from working for Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform lobby for right-wing issues, telling Americans how they should run their country.

Apparently, though, he tried a different career for a while last year, in yet a different country.

But Kamburowski's former boss in the Dominican Republic resort town of Punta Cana -- where Kamburowski worked until February -- expressed astonishment that the Australian was hired for such an important financial job in a major political party.

"I wouldn't give him my company to run, I can tell you that,'' said Rico Pester, the owner of Re/Max Island Realty in the fashionable Caribbean beach region.

Pester said Kamburowski arrived in Punta Cana in the summer of 2006 and "was so successful that he couldn't sell anything the whole time he was here -- and we provided him with clients. He didn't rent anything and he didn't sell anything. ... I have no idea what he was doing.''

Then, in February, Kamburowski "ran away without mentioning anything to us,'' he said.

"I couldn't understand how somebody like him could become a (Republican Party) COO,'' Pester said in a telephone interview.

'Tis a puzzlement. Indeed.

Update: That was fast:

Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party's chief operating officer, abruptly resigned Sunday -- less than 24 hours after The Chronicle reported he had been ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and now has a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.

The move was reported in a terse statement late Sunday by state party chair Ron Nehring, who said the state GOP's Operations Committee accepted Kamburowski's resignation during a teleconference with him.

Apparently, in California they don't tolerate such things as easily as in DC.

Former White House adviser Steve Schmidt, who ran the re-election campaign for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, angrily described the appointment of Kamburowski as "almost a parody of incompetence and malfeasance.''

"Somebody who has been imprisoned, faced deportation, has never worked on a state political campaign ... and who is suing the government for harm inflicted by his deportation order defies description,'' Schmidt said. "The bylaws of the Republican Party invest enormous authority in the position of chief operating officer -- and it's clear that this person brings no experience and qualifications to run a state party of the size of California, not to mention the assorted legal issues involved.''

The harsh words from Schmidt -- who ran the Bush 2004 presidential campaign war room, advised Vice President Dick Cheney and was a member of White House adviser Karl Rove's inner circle -- underscored the concern in the California GOP following The Chronicle's story on Sunday that detailed Kamburowski's immigration history and multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the government.

If I were the guy who hired him, I think I'd be dusting off my resume. Maybe Grover will take him back.