Ambassadorships for sale

I spent months researching the nexus of money and ambassadorial appointments for a story I wrote for Chicago magazine.

I focused on Chicagoan Louis Susman, 72, recently retired as a vice chairman of Citigroup, who was awarded the most prestigious of postings — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. Nicknamed “the vacuum cleaner” for his success in sucking up money from friends and associates, Susman raised nearly a quarter million for Obama’s campaign and $300,000 for his inauguration. Today Susman and his wife live in a mansion on 35 acres in London’s Regent’s Park and enjoy a private garden second in size only to the queen’s at Buckingham Palace.

I offered other examples — the ambassador to France, $800,000 raised; Belgium, $500,000; Spain, $800,000; Switzerland, $500,000; Finland, $500,000.

The executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, Sheila Krumholz, characterized this system as “a donor rewards program.” None of the above has foreign service training. That doesn’t mean that they’re not accomplished and competent, but the bottom line is the assignment is a payback, a lifelong title; a nonpareil resume enhancer.

Obama is no worse than his predecessors — the tradition dates back to Andrew Jackson — but Obama promised he’d aim for more professional and fewer political appointees. Instead his numbers line up with his George W. Bush’s — approximately 70 percent professionally trained diplomats and 30 percent political appointees.

Trouble spots almost always get professionals. (Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Haiti, for example.) Countries where one might like to vacation, where appointees are not at risk of getting malaria or facing a mob storming the embassy mostly go to the money guys (and gals).

In 1989, then-Sen. Al Gore delivered a speech blasting the practice of installing “amateurs, hacks” to these “important … appointments.” He pushed a law restricting political appointees to 15 percent. When he ran for VP under Bill Clinton or during his own presidential campaign in 2000 Gore did not raise the subject.

The U.S. is the only major power that chooses its ambassador this way, and sometimes the practice rattles old friends. Japan, for instance, has a new government trying for more independence from Washington, anxious over disagreements about an American military base in Okinawa and the harsh congressional questioning of Toyota president, Akio Toyoda. (In Japan questions were raised over whether the U.S. was bashing Toyota as a means of boosting sales of government-controlled GM.)

Accustomed to welcoming political appointees — but heavyweights such as retired Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker, Speaker of the House Tom Foley, and Vice President Walter Mondale — the Japanese were reportedly insulted by Obama’s sending John V. Roos, a Silicon Valley tech lawyer who raised $500,000 for the President. Adding to the insult was Obama’s dispatching to China Jon Huntsman, then governor of Utah, a Republican superstar said to be atop the GOP’s list to run against Obama in 2012. Although not a trained diplomat, Huntsman is definitely a heavyweight, a former ambassador to Singapore who speaks fluent Mandarin.

In the final days of the health-care battle, Republicans charged that Tennessee Blue Dog Rep. John Tanner, who had already announced his retirement, was trying to wrangle an ambassadorship in exchange for a yes vote. Tanner hotly denied the allegation. I knew it was bogus because ambassadorships are not for sale for votes.

They are for sale for very large contributions.

Oh, and Tanner voted no.