Comments on Advance Indiana™: Jill Kelley: The Tampa Kardashian

Didja look at the State Department's list? Sa...

2012-11-16T11:40:30.670-05:00

Didja look at the State Department's list?

Savage is indeed honorary consul for Denmark in Tampa. Didn't bother to look up the others.

Don't take the news media as sources on official diplomatic standing; look at the State Department's list!

I don't know what the hell you're talking ...

2012-11-15T18:59:59.634-05:00

I don't know what the hell you're talking about. There are numerous stories discussing it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/2012/11/jill-kelley-not-the-only-honorary.html

An avalanche of reporting over the past week revealed that Kelley is an honorary consul for the South Korean government, a role she obtained in August, according to CNN. It turns out, Kelley shares the title of honorary consul with some Tampa business heavyweights.

Kelley’s honorary consul status is emblazoned in a special license plate on her Mercedes S500 sedan and been mocked in her widely circulated 911 call claiming “inviolability.”

But Kelley isn’t the only honorary consul in Tampa Bay.

Turns out more than a dozen people have similar roles in promoting international relations and economic development with foreign countries, according to a “Tampa Bay Consular Corps” list on the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors’ website.

The list, which appears to be a year or two old, does not include Kelley.

Arthur R. Savage holds the title for Denmark and Norway and the dean of the Consular Corps. He could not be reach late Thursday.

Businessman David A. Straz Jr. is honorary consul for the Republic of Liberia. He referred questions to Savage.

Jean-Charles Faust of Faust Realty in Clearwater is honorary consul for France. Former St. Petersburg College President Carl Kuttler is listed as honorary consul for the Russian Federation.

Jose Vivero, chairman and CEO of Century Bank of Florida, is on the list as an honorary consul for Spain. Al Karnavicius, president of Bayprint in St. Petersburg, is honorary counsul of the Republic of Lithuania.

A South Korean spokesman told CNN his government is monitoring the situation with Kelley.

Not possible. According to the State Department (h...

2012-11-15T17:10:04.936-05:00

Not possible. According to the State Department (http://www.state.gov/ofm/ro/ho/plates/), only Texas, Louisiana and Colorado provide special plates for honorary consuls.

The State Department maintains the list of foreign consuls, and Ms. Kelley is not on it. Korea's honorary consul for Florida since 1999 is Burton Landy (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/188594.pdf).

So, your source for her honorary consul status is just plain wrong.

So, you haven't found any evidence that she ac...

2012-11-15T16:57:33.823-05:00

So, you haven't found any evidence that she actually holds Honorary Consul status.

What does the South Korean embassy in Washington have to say about it?

She has a Florida-issued license plate that claims...

2012-11-15T12:20:16.470-05:00

She has a Florida-issued license plate that claims she holds the title. I'm having difficulty with the idea that a Lebanese immigrant to this country living as a housewife in Tampa would be serving in that capacity for South Korea. Those titles are typically conferred on prominent U.S. citizens with some ties to the country in question.

Honorary consul status is conferred by a nation an...

2012-11-15T11:26:27.850-05:00

Honorary consul status is conferred by a nation and confirmed by the State Department.

Is she really an honorary consul of South Korea, or does she just play one in Tampa?