The Daily Beast appears to have incorrectly reported Brinker's salary in an earlier version of their story, and we reported that figure, with some skepticism. The Daily Beast has quietly rewritten their story, correcting the salary figure, so I've deleted the grafs relating to the higher (now incorrect) salary. The correct figure is close to the $500,000 we earlier reported here.
The article’s details reinforce the picture we painted earlier. Brinker is not just a charity maven, she’s a hard-core Republican and friend of the mighty:
The commanding, 66-year-old businesswoman, diplomat, and Medal of Freedom recipient, … established the world’s largest breast cancer nonprofit, with its signature pink ribbon, in memory of her older sister, Susan in 1982. (Laura Bush, a close friend, was one of her original supporters and volunteers. After their mastectomies, Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan joined the group.)
When she married Norman Brinker in the early 1980s she was able to launch her twin careers — building Komen into a money-earning powerhouse and helping to finance the Movement Conservative project:
in the early ’80s, she met and married multimillionaire restaurateur Norman Brinker, a major Republican donor. … When they tied the knot, the union provided Nancy with a network of A-list political connections and friends, plus the funds to lead a luxurious lifestyle and create the Komen Foundation, now the Susan G. Komen for the Cure with affiliates in 170 communities in 50 nations. …
Several years later the couple divorced and with a hefty settlement, formidable drive, and her chum George W. Bush in the White House, Nancy was ready to step onto the world stage. First the [p]resident appointed her ambassador to Hungary and then U.S. chief of protocol.
That ambassadorship was likely a thank-you gift for her fundraising (nearly $700,000 in political donations between herself and her husband). Most ambassadorships are; it’s been an open secret for decades.
How seriously did she take her ambassadorship?
She was lonely, says a friend, and spent most of her time away from her post.
Ah, the life of the 0.1% Can I have a job like that? Small people get lonely too, you know.
