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Ambassadorships For Sale

Posted In: Obama Administration, Politicians, U.S. Government

Glad to know that once again, the most-qualified individuals will be representing our nation’s interests overseas as ambassadors.

From Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman and Jonathan Salant yesterday:

Louis Susman has one thing in common with many of his predecessors nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom: money.

Susman, 71, a retired Citigroup Inc. senior investment banker, raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and another $300,000 for his inauguration. On Wednesday, Obama nominated Susman to the post formally known as the Court of St. James.

Like Andrew Mellon, Joseph Kennedy and Walter Annenberg before him, Susman’s credentials stem more from involvement in financing party politics than foreign policy experience.

Susman, a Chicago resident, is nicknamed the “Vacuum Cleaner” in political circles due to his fund-raising talents.

Goldman and Salant continued:

Even with his pledges to change government, Obama is following the tradition of his predecessors by offering some ambassadorships to top campaign backers, including four of the 12 nominations this week.

The president acknowledged in a news conference in January that donors might get plum postings.

“The practice of rewarding donors is a remnant of the spoils system that we abolished in the civil service,” said career diplomat Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and a former ambassador to Afghanistan. “It is a dismal testimony to the importance of money in our electoral system.”

More change we can believe in?

Goldman and Salant added:

Besides Susman, those nominated on May 27 include:

– John Roos, chief executive officer of the Palo Alto, California-based law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, to Japan. He raised more than $500,000 for Obama.
– Charles Rivkin, chief executive officer of Wildbrain Inc., to France. Rivkin collected more than $500,000 for Obama’s campaign and $300,000 for his inauguration.
– Laurie Fulton, a partner with Williams & Connolly LLP, to Denmark. Fulton, 59, raised $100,000 to $200,000.

Apparently, Mr. Rivkin was also the former producer of “The Muppets” children show.

And just went up a few notches in my book.

Going back to Susman, he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying he was “excited by the opportunity to serve our country.”

I wonder if the more experienced foreign service officers in London would say the same about the prospects of serving under him?

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