Forget the Supreme Court- these are some appointments that are worth getting upset about.
There is considerable angst among the chattering class about the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But while some of us may question the logic that says we have to deliberately limit the selection pool, as Once a Marine points out-at least she is qualified for the job. If she were male, and opposed to abortion-the Newt Gingriches and Rush Limbaughs of the world would love her.
If folks want to get mad at Obama about some really lousy appointments-I strongly encourage one and all to get more than a little upset about his recent ambassador appointments. They suck.
There used to be an unwritten rule in the appointing of ambassadors-the big donors got to go to nice places that were not critical to US foreign policy-like being US ambassador to Switzerland. However you did not simply treat the Ambassador to the Court of St. James as just another political payoff.
Until now, evidently:
No doubt the new political appointees can handle the job. Roos, as CEO of a global, technology-focused law firm, understands trade issues likely to arise in Japan. Rivkin has international experience as a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. And Obama’s appointee to Great Britain, Louis Susman, speaks fluent English.
Problem is-the Japanese take this idea of having a qualified US ambassador seriously. And with that in mind the idea of Roos simply getting the job as a political payoff is not setting well with the Japanese:
Roos is almost unknown among U.S. and Japanese officials and experts. Because he has no diplomatic and security experience, some doubt has been raised about his qualifications at a time when North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats are mounting.
And lest we forget, whoever is ambassador in Japan will be knee deep in the largest re-alignment of US forces in Japan since the end of the Korean war. 8000 Marines to Guam, moving CVW-5 from Atsugi ( where it should be staying) to Iwakuni ( where it has no business being), along with a whole bunch of ancillary moves that are causing more than a couple of political, financial, and strategic complications. The choice of Roos, described as an “virtually unknown lawyer,” is creating some angst in Tokyo. The Japanese press even has a dismissive term used to describe the Roos nomination and others like it: ronkokosho or “honoring past services,” referring to the funding support Roos provided during the campaign.
To be fair, Obama is not the only President to appoint political friends to ambassadorships. However, for a guy who made “change” his mantra-this is a funny way to go about it.
To be fair, there’s a long history of far less qualified people landing far cushier ambassadorships. In 2006, President Bush appointed his friend and fraternity brother Michael Wood to the post in Sweden. Ann Louise Wagner, former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, landed the Luxembourg spot in 2005. And President Reagan once appointed an ambassador to Australia whose chief qualification was selling used cars.
The swankiest gigs, according to former ambassadors, are the Scandinavian countries—Norway, Sweden, Finland—as well as Luxembourg and the Caribbean islands. But for the most part, any Western European country will do. Ronald Spiers, former ambassador to Turkey and Pakistan, remembers a conversation with a Navy admiral, who told him that after retiring he’d like to serve as ambassador to Spain. To which Spiers, a lifelong diplomat, responded that upon retiring he would like to command the Sixth Fleet. “He didn’t think it was funny,” Spiers says. The admiral did, in fact, become ambassador to Spain. Spiers did not become an admiral.
Ambassadors in paradise still have to manage their embassy staffs—or tell their deputies to do so. They also meet with leaders to discuss the ins and outs of, say, trade policy and report back to the State Department about what’s going on. But they don’t handle sensitive negotiations, like their counterparts in China and Afghanistan. One former nominee to the Bahamas, asked in his confirmation hearing what qualified him for the job, bragged about his golf game.
Over at Foreign Policy Magazine, David Rothkopf does not sugarcoat his feelings about these appointments being a self inflicted wound to the Obama administration-and I agree with the fundamental question he asks: Do we even need ambassadors anymore?
Of course, Obama is not the first to send unqualified fat cats off to be America’s face to the world (and there is a certain element of truth-in-advertising there that is refreshing amid the finally buffed bullshit of diplomatic intercourse). But this only underscores my core point. If a job is meaningless enough to be entrusted to someone who is unqualified to do it, do we really need to fill that post? This point is made especially forcefully when even the most important such jobs (like Japan) are being filled by political bag men. Further of course, anyone with much exposure to foreign policy knows that to our closest allies and most important enemies, dealing with ambassadors is often viewed as being at the bottom of the food chain. It is too easy today to pick up the phone or send ministers to speak to cabinet secretaries or sub-cabinet officials to meet with sub-cabinet officials or even to arrange exchanges among leaders than to entrust really important communications to intermediaries who need to pass it up through multiple layers in the State Department and/or the White House before they reach the eyes of anyone who is actually a policymaker. Furthermore, with the proliferation of special envoys in this administration…diplomats who report directly to the Secretary of State or the President…being a regular ambassador is rendered even more of a bag-carrier or logistical coordinator role.
Britain is supposed to be our most important ally. Japan is the centerpiece of our security relationship in Asia. I heard that ad-nauseum during almost 9 years there. I even sort of came to believe it. (All the while inside my head, the little voice inside me kept reminding me: ”Don’t fool yourself. We need the Japanese more than they need us.”).
So of course, it makes perfect sense to appoint someone to the Court of St. James: “Louis Susman, another big time fund-raiser whose credentials include having been a vice chairman of financial invalid Citibank (who knew overseeing the decline of an American financial institution would become the great path to top government jobs that it has been in this administration?) and a director of the St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball team. To France, the decision is to send another fund-raiser, this one whose most notable credential is having been the President of the Muppets. (He once ran the Jim Henson Company.)” With those qualifications-what could possibly go wrong?
Too bad I don’t have a lot of money. If I had some-it might have been my one sure ticket to get back to Asia.It would appear that except for the money part- I meet the other qualifications:
Reagan’s appointee to Norway, Mark Austad, was known for getting drunk and chasing women around. “We had to get rid of him,” says Spiers, who handled State Department personnel at the time. Another ambassador, this one to Denmark years ago, was asked to resign after it became known that he kept two prostitutes in his residence. But deep embarrassment is rare. “You usually develop a protection around them, to kind of isolate them from damage,” says Spiers.
Is Thailand still open?