Hutchison NATO appointment puts her in a whole new world

Then President-elect Bush compares boots with Rick Perry, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Sen. Phil Gramm on stage during the Black Tie and Boots ball in Washington Friday night, Jan. 19, 2001. Then President-elect Bush compares boots with Rick Perry, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Sen. Phil Gramm on stage during the Black Tie and Boots ball in Washington Friday night, Jan. 19, 2001. Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Hutchison NATO appointment puts her in a whole new world 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's selection as President Donald Trump's ambassador to NATO continues a run of high-profile Texans in the Trump administration, and one that may soften the edges of the president's prickly relations with the outside world.

She will be joining former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now Trump's energy czar, and ex-ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson, now Trump's embattled Secretary of State. At the White House, she also will recognize former Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri, now deputy director of the office of public liaison in the Trump administration.

For Hutchison, 73, coming out of political retirement after three terms in the Senate will put her in a whole new partisan sphere than the one she left when she decided not to run in 2012.

Political observers will be watching to see how Hutchinson, the most senior female Republican senator by the end of her tenure, will navigate Trump's well-known insistence on absolute loyalty, the more so since his messy twitter attack Thursday on MSNBC figure Mika Brzezinski.

In an MSNBC interview in April last year, Hutchison said Trump was wrong to attack Hillary Clinton on gender and needed to stay more focused on issues and experience.

"The context that he's using, personal attacks on his opponents, both Republicans as well as Democrats, is just the wrong attack right now," Hutchison said. "It is time for him to start talking substance and I thought his foreign policy speech was a step in the right direction. And I think we don't need any more of these personal, little slights."

Hutchison, originally a backer of Jeb Bush for president in 2016, also said she wasn't sure at the time if she could support Trump if he won the GOP nomination.

As ambassador to NATO, Hutchison will become the face of Trump's uneasy relationship with the 28-nation military alliance, which he once called "obsolete."

The president has pressed European members of the alliance to spend more money on defense, saying the U.S. was being shortchanged. It will presumably be up to Hutchison now to drive a harder bargain.

As a senator, Hutchison served on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense and Military Construction appropriations subcommittees.

As she faces the Senate confirmation process, she has received the thumbs-up of both current Texas senators. "With a proven track record of getting results, she has always done what she thought was in the best interest of Texas and our country," said Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

Sen. Ted Cruz also weighed in on Friday, saying her past Senate committee posts give her "an incredible insight into the issues facing Europe, her allies and the importance of NATO to serve in opposition to Russian aggression."