Elizabeth Warren's Revolutionary Proposal to End the Selling of Ambassadorships
This week, presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren issued a concise set of proposals to revitalize U.S. diplomacy and the Department of State. I nearly fell off my stool at Starbucks and choked on my cappuccino when I read it. Imagine, a politician, one running for the top job no less, thinking about diplomacy. And actually taking the Department of State seriously. I'll believe it when I see it. But the proposal that stands out most is her commitment to end this country's noxious practice of selling ambassadorships. Warren's promise:
Trump has perfected the act of selling swanky diplomatic posts to rich buffoons. In the Trump administration, $1 million buys you an appointment to the Bahamas — even if you’re not quite sure what that means. For $2 million, you can become Ambassador to the United Nations. Trump nominated a real estate lawyer accused of sexual harassment as ambassador to Romania. His South Africa nominee is a handbag designer. In all, Donald Trump has appointed political cronies to nearly half the available ambassadorial positions — far more than any president in recent memory. As a result, opportunities for career professionals are severely limited.
That’s why I’m pledging to put America’s national interests ahead of campaign donations and end the corrupt practice of selling cushy diplomatic posts to wealthy donors — and I call on everyone running for President to do the same. I won’t give ambassadorial posts to wealthy donors or bundlers — period.
I especially like that challenge to the other Dem candidates. I'm counting the minutes waiting for each of them to step up to the plate. How about it Mayor Pete?
My hat's off to the senior senator from Massachusetts. She has a well deserved reputation for progressive reform. God knows the mushroom cloud of corruption in the Trump administration darkens the American political landscape like nothing we've ever seen before. And the Trumpistas have treated the State Department like a city sacked by barbarians, ripe for plunder. Almost a third of senior positions go unfilled. Over 90 percent of key policy positions are occupied by political hacks as are nearly half of ambassadorships. Marquette University law professor Ryan M. Scoville has completed a major, in-depth study on the problem of selling ambassadorships, "Unqualified Ambassadors." He finds that Trump's ambassadorial picks have forked over a record amount of cash to his election campaign in comparison with previous administrations. Moreover, they possess fewer qualifications for the job.
* share who are career FSO's as of 6/28/19: 54.2 percent
This week, we got a bird's-eye view of Trump-style amateur-hour diplomacy in Asia. As the president palled it up on the DMZ with North Korea's best candidate for a massive coronary for men under 40, Great Successor Kim Jong-un, Ivanka, all cupied up and with a skull cavity as empty as a conch shell on a climate change-devastated beach, embarrassed her nation as world leaders at the G20 in Osaka treated her like the proverbial skunk at a garden party. Meanwhile, alleged National Security Advisor John Bolton was coughing up dessicated camel dung while in temporary exile somewhere in the Gobi Desert.
As for ambassadorial picks, here, straight from The Swamp --
South Africa: South African-born Lana Marks is a high-end hand-bag designer and Mar-a-Lago member with zero diplomatic experience. Marks has repeatedly been accused in multiple lawsuits of Trumpesque stiffing her attorneys, accountants, landlords and employees for payments due. She is also fighting bitter, legal battles in South Africa and Israel with her siblings over a family trust.
Netherlands: Dutch-born U.S. ambassador Pete Hoekstra was called out by that country's journalists for falsely claiming there were "Islamic no-go zones" in the Netherlands. Hoekstra, ex-congressman and Michigan GOP co-chair, dismissed their attacks as, you guessed it, "fake news," which naturally has endeared him even more to Dutch people (full disclosure: I'm married to one).
Morocco: David T. Fischer, car dealer from Troy, Michigan, bought the post for a relatively bargain basement price of $360,000. Does more need be said?
Vatican: Newt's wife. She loves pasta. No other qualifications.
Israel: David Friedman. Qualifications? Trump's bankruptcy lawyer. Ardent Zionist. Called American Jews who disagree with him, "Far worse than kapos" (i.e. concentration camp inmates who worked for the Nazis).
Czech Republic: Long-time Wisconsin GOP operative Stephen B. King. As a security guard for Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), he kept Martha Mitchell, wife of AG John Mitchell, in a hotel room and held her down while she was injected with a sedative — to keep her from talking to the press about Watergate.
Germany: Upon arrival in Berlin, U.S. ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that German business must cease doing business with Iran. He also stated, "I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left." Umm. Did this guy go through the "How to Be an Ambassador" course at the Foreign Service Institute, a kind of finishing school for doofus ambassadorial political appointees? Imagine the reaction should Germany's ambassador to the U.S. declare, "I see my job as weakening all those parties who criticize the Christian Democratic Union."
But my favorite Trump-hole of the week is Ambassador Sean Lawler, soon-to-be ex-protocol chief at the State Department - a nonsubstantive yet important job. I don't know how Lawler scored on the Myers-Briggs test, but if there was a category called, PAWS - "psycho-aggressive-wannabe-slave master," Lawler would be top scorer. He reportedly was unprotocolly abusive to his staff, even brandishing a horse whip to intimidate them. In a mea culpa, former chief Democratic counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Margaret Taylor - who had vetted and passed Lawler - offers the following additional criteria to prevent a recurrence of her oversight of Lawler's, ahem, deficiencies:
Has anyone you have managed ever considered resigning in protest because of your treatment of any person in the workplace?
Have you ever carried a whip, switch, bullwhip, brine-soaked cane, cattle prod, cat-o’-nine-tails or bludgeon in the workplace, or have you ever had the urge to do so?
Do you have any intention of carrying such object in the workplace in the future?
I've digressed. So, as to the matter of auctioning America's ambassadorships to car dealers, bankruptcy lawyers, horse whippers and other unqualified hacks, we've heard politicians' promises to curtail this peculiarly American corruption before. Carter did, but sold plenty of diplomatic positions. In his first presidential campaign, Obama promised to limit the practice, yet he nominated more donors, friends and supporters – nearly double – than his predecessors.
So, as I eagerly wait for 20-odd candidates to pick up Elizabeth Warren's challenge to end the corruption altogether, I have only to say that which the DNC and RNC tell hacks wanting to play American Ambassador:
Put up or shut up.