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Sembler had previously served as Ambassador to Australia and Nauru by [[George H.W. Bush]] in 1989. [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/7043.htm] "Sembler served as Finance Chairman for the [[Republican National Committee]] from 1997 to 2000. He also served as Florida's National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee after his election in 1994 until 2000."<ref>[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/7043.htm Biography: Melvin Sembler, Ambassador, Italy Term of Appointment: 11/16/2001 to present,] [[U.S. Department of State]], January 8, 2002.</ref>    ==Possible removal== It is possible that Mel Sembler may be removed from his ambassadorship, the UPI reported December 13, 2004.<ref>Roland Flamini, [http://web.archive.org/web/20051105072240/http://www.wpherald.com/North_America/storyview.php?StoryID=20041213-060311-4177r "Analysis: New Bush term will have revamped diplomatic team,"] UPI (''World Peace Herald''), December 13, 2004.</ref> :"Among these, reportedly, is Mel Sembler, the U.S. ambassador to Rome, who has made it plain he would like not to be recalled for at least another two years. But the sources understand the shopping mall developer and Bush supporter has been told a partial extension is not in the cards."  ==Roman construction scandal== In March 2005, Mel Sembler was involved in a scandal involving the government purchase of an 83.5 million dollar palace once owned by an Italian insurance company, and naming it after himself, with an addtional 30 million dollars in refurbishment.<ref>Al Kamen, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5165-2005Mar3.html "Narcissus Is Now Greek AND Roman,"] ''Washington Post'', March 3, 2005.</ref> To this day no other sitting ambassador has had a building, either in America or abroad, named after him. == Investigations ==Mel Sembler is currently under Federal Investigation in Palm Beach county, Florida, for what appears to be a bribe to county officials through an influential lobbyist for a proposed construction project. The developer paid a $100,000 fee to lobbyist Hugo Unruh after being told it would be hard to win county approval for a traffic-throttling shopping center without him. <ref>Boynton mayor, lobbyist stir feds' interest,[http://www.palmbeachpost.com/arts/content/local_news/epaper/2008/05/31/m1a_unruh_0601.html] ''Palm Beach Post'',May 31st,2008,</ref>  ==Resources and articles=====Related SourceWatch articles===*[[Freedom's Watch]] ===References===<references/> ===External articles===*Maia Szalavitz, [http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/6/szalavitz-m.html "Why Jesus is Not a Regulator,"] ''The American Prospect'', April 9, 2001.*Radley Balko, [http://www.webdiva.org/fox/ "Drug War Casualties,"] [[Fox News]], May 23, 2002.*Wesley Fager, [http://www.thestraights.com/melsembler/index.htm "Unauthorized Biography of Ambassador Melvin Sembler"] and [http://thestraights.com/people/straight-officials/board/sembler/sembler-family-contributions.htm "Sembler Family Contributions,"] ''TheStraights.com'', 2003.*John Gorenfeld, [http://media.orkut.com/articles/0145.html "His Own Private Abu Ghraib,"] ''orkut'', March 23, 2005.*Mike Allen, [http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5479.html "Pro-Bush group spends $15M defending war,"] ''[[The Politico]]'' ([http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884793/posts posted] by [[Free Republic]]), August 22, 2007.*Mithras, [http://mithras.blogs.com/blog/2007/08/more-on-that-pr.html "More on that Pro-War Astroturf Group,"] ''Fables of the reconstruction'' Blog, August 23, 2007.*Michael Roston, [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/05/introducing-freedoms-wat_n_67189.html "Introducing Freedom's Watch Watch: Who is Mel Sembler?"] ''The Huffington Post'', October 5, 2007.*Bartholomew Sullivan, [http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/oct/15/bush-makes-dinner-visit/ "Bush makes dinner visit. President will attend Alexander campaign event in Memphis,"] ''The Commercial Appeal'' (Memphis, Tenn.), October 15, 2007. ===External resources===*[http://www.melsembler.com/ MelSembler.com.]*[http://www.dfaf.org/about/founders.php Founders: Betty Sembler and Mel Sembler,] DrugFreeAmericaFoundation.org. [[category:pro-war lobby]][[Category:United States]][[category:politics (U.S.)]][[category:elections (U.S.)]]