Bush nominates RJC leader as envoy

President Bush nominated a leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition as ambassador to the Bahamas. Ned Siegel, who heads the RJC’s Florida chapter and is on its national board of directors, was on a list of appointees and nominees sent Thursday by the White House.Siegel, a regional president for the Jewish National Fund, is a major Bush fund-raiser. He already serves the administration as a member of the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., which guides U.S. investment overseas.Last month Bush named Sam Fox, the RJC’s national chairman, as ambassador to Belgium. Fox was a recess appointment, since the Democratic-led Senate had blocked his nomination because he had contributed $50,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that made largely unsubstantiated claims about the wartime service of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts during the 2004 presidential campaign.