For Sale: Ambassador’s Slot. Competence Optional

Colleen Bell seems like a nice
enough person. She’s certainly been successful in the television
industry as a producer of “The Bold and the Beautiful” (a spin-off
of “The Young and the Restless,” which, like the show she produces,
was also created by her in-laws). She even speaks conversational
Spanish, which might not be as helpful as she’d wish in her new
posting as ambassador to Hungary. But she’s been really effective
at packaging donations to the political campaigns of Barack Obama,
which is not the sort of thing that hurts your prospects of a
political appointment when Obama is president of the United
States.

Bell is certainly not the first political appointee to grace the
State Department—nor the least likely.
Noah Mamet’s appointment as ambassador to politically volatile
Argentina, a country he’s never visited, seems just as
eyebrow-raising. And let’s not forget Shirley Temple Black’s roles
as ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia under President Ronald
Reagan (though both countries could, no doubt, have benefited from
a cheery rendition or two of “On the Good Ship Lollipop”).

In fact, ambassadorships have long been effectively for sale.
The American Foreign Service Association—basically the labor union
for career diplomats—tracks ambassadorial
appointments and breaks them down by career and political, with
a note as to whether nominees are political campaign bundlers. Bell
and Mamet are both bundlers. So far, 35.2 percent of President Obama’s
appointments to ambassadorial posts have been political rather
than career. That compares to 29.8 percent for George W. Bush and
28.6 percent for Bill Clinton.
Yes, political appointments are pay-offs for services rendered. For
her part, Bell’s services include
$500,000 or so in bundled donations, coupled with what is
apparently total ignorance about Hungary’s role in the greater
scheme of things (hint: it’s near Russia).

If you’re curious, Colleen Bell’s Certificate of Demonstrated
Competence for the role of Ambassador to the Republic of Hungary is

here (a full list for appointees is here). Yesterday, she
and Mamet were confirmed by the Senate.