Campaign Bundlers get Ambassador Roles Despite never having been to the Countries!

I mean, when it comes to all the examples of campaign donor cronyism that are worth getting upset about, this would probably rank pretty low on the list for me.

 

It started out because we needed rich ambassadors to throw parties and such because we rightly don't provide a lot of money for lavish parties in the State Dept. budget and we certainly didn't in the early 20th century an earlier.

 

That, and these people tend to be successful executives which means they can build strong networks with influential people, negotiate and facilitate trade relationships. It's possible all the talented diplomats go into the DoD, along with the half trillion.

 

You don't actually care about the confluence of money and politics or you would aim a bit higher in your critique. As I said earlier though, good on you for starting with the relatively unimportant stuff.

I assume you are against political appointment of people who most merit a position. How do you feel about all cabinet level, executive branch agency director, and supreme court judges?

How about people who use their money to get their desired policy outcome in regulation, law, and elections not thinking of consequences other than their bottom line?

I presume your ire is drawn toward all these things as well.

 

Where were you when this happened? Seems a bit more consequential than some ambassador.


Critics Question FEMA Director's Qualifications
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9325977/#.UvXoBX-9KK0

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 — Michael Brown's biggest job before landing at FEMA was supervising judges at Arabian horse shows.

The embattled FEMA director does not mention in his official online biography that he was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association for nine years. Association officials tell NBC News that Brown resigned under pressure from that job, before joining FEMA.

"People wondered how he got to FEMA as we all did, and certainly what he did with the Arabian Horse Association was nothing what he does with FEMA," Arabian Horse Association Regional Director Chuck Mangan.

Brown was brought into FEMA by his college roommate, Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's first campaign manager and FEMA director. At the time, Brown's only prior experience in emergency services was in a suburb of Oklahoma City in the mid-1970s. He became FEMA director when Allbaugh left in 2003.

A former FEMA manager questions Brown’s qualifications.

"Director Brown’s lack of experience may have played a role in some of the difficulties in executing decisions," former FEMA official John Copenhaver said.

Critics also say Brown doesn’t seem on top of the situation.

"I don’t want to alarm anyone that New Orleans is filling up like a bowl. That isn’t happening," he said.

The day following television reports of thousands stranded at the Convention Center, Brown said "the federal government just learned about those people today."

However, on Sept. 2, the president expressed confidence in Brown.
"Brownie, you’re doin’ a heck of a job," he told him during a tour of the disaster region.

Homeland Security officials defend Brown, saying he was a senior FEMA manager during 9/11 and is now working "day and night" to save lives, in the largest relief effort in American history.

 

If the necessary qualifications are the ability to shake hands and host parties, as it would seem to be for the Ambassador to Argentina, then very few among us would be "unqualified."

 

This point always comes up whenever this issue is discussed. The thing is, a lot of ambassadors (the ones who are political appointees) don't do much of substance, because they don't have any particular skill or experience in diplomacy. On the other hand, about half of our ambassadors are career diplomats, and they make much better use of their posts. So if the ambassadorships in rich countries are largely ceremonial, that's because we've been sending unqualified people. Not the other way around.

 

Aargh, we had this thread months ago.


I will put it in big letters:

non-career diplomats in non-hotspot countries are expected to serve a largely social function - which includes hosting parties on their own dime.

That's why its the domain of rich folks and not career FSOs.

 

My Dad was made Ambassador during a different President's term of office. While he worked on the expat vote campaign while working overseas, he was hands down the most qualified guy for the job. He had over 30 years experience in Asia and had advised numerous administrations on various Asian economic policy decisions prior to his appointment.

Sam is right, my Dad should have been a lot richer when he took the gig. He was expected to entertain often...both diplomats and our troops...and it all came out of his pockets. He even had to "rent" the diplomatic china. However, I will also state that his connections as Ambassador for 4 years helped him build a solid consulting firm which is helping him refill his retirement coffers. Plus he gets some solid government benefits.

He would admit that there are some losers out there, but there are good ones, too.

 

Bonus points if anyone knows who this (German) politician is...

 

Big letters or no, that's a dumb-ass way to run diplomacy. So what if Argentina looks like a trouble-free zone right now? What do you do when there's a sudden crisis and you need someone good there? I thought Bush showed us already what happens when you point unqualified leaders atop organizations that suddenly must deal with crisis. Aside from that, qualified people can be entrepreneurial in their diplomacy and find advantages where political stooges would just throw parties. This is like saying you have a big corporation with 100 business units and you're going to put qualified leaders in the 10 biggest BUs and the 10 that are struggling the most -- and you'll staff the rest with your high school friends. The shareholder will not be pleased.

 

Unfortunately, ambassadors being rich party throwers has always been so. Foreign relation experience is a bonus. This is not new, nor news.

Edit: I don't agree with it, but it is what it is...anyone remember Shirley Temple?

 

Sorry JuanValdez, you are indeed right but your voice doesn't matter. I agree, it is dumb, but the last 34 years (the period probably longer) have shown us that the "shareholders" don't seem to actually give a flying **** about having a government that isn't overly beholden to monied interests. So why would they care about a small facet of money warping politics when many don't seem to care about it in other areas? What makes Ambassadorships the pivot point where people say enough is enough?

 

I think I want to become a rich party-throwing ambassador in Argentina. Sounds like a nice job description!

 

Ambassadors tend to be figure heads and the real expertise is held by the long term State Dept employees.

It might be a good idea to have ambassadors come from their ranks, but this is largely just another problem of money in politics.

Even if you took the money out, you would still have presidents and office holders appointing friends, the most competent or not.

This is a small problem of both parties in comparisons to a lot of things wrong with the system.

 

There's this thing called a telephone (or email or whatever) whereby President Obama (or his designee) calls President Fernandez-Kirchner (or her designees) which is the way most diplomacy/intergovernmental contacts have been done for the last 50 years.

It's really nothing like a big corporation and shareholders and executives. We could probably do away with the whole system as it's a relic - currently the role of the ambassasdor is as a figurehead/host. The whole concept of "qualified" and "merit" in terms of jobs that have no real responsibility other than to show up, throw a party and wear a suit and not offend anybody is laughable.

If you want to argue against the system that's fine, but don't give me the line of garbage that a career FSO is better "qualified" to do the job (to the extent here even is one) because of "merit" since he spent his time reviewing visa applications. It's like saying the back office guy for the Rockets who resets the printer when there's PC load letter should show up to a charity event and represent the team more so than Matt Bullard or something.

 

The post above is a load of ignorant bull****, presented by SamFisher. Any ambassador, even the dumbest one, has a ton more qualifications than SamFisher can ever dream of.