Buy an Ambassadorship? Heavens! The American Academy of Diplomacy has written Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, urging them to pledge to sharply reduce the number of political (i.e. non-career) ambassadors if either becomes president. No problem. Who needs multimillions of bucks from wealthy contributors? Just as crippling, the academy wants the candidates to "commit to appointing only the most qualified ambassadors" to these jobs. So no more fat cats buying ambassadorships? This is a death blow to America's commitment to free trade in ambassadorships. The candidates will surely dismiss this misguided proposal. (Neither has responded to the academy.) The letter, from Thomas Pickering, academy chairman and former ambassador to the United Nations, and Ronald E. Neumann, the academy's president and a former ambassador to Kabul, says that, since the Kennedy administration, about a third of the nation's 190 or so ambassadors have been political appointees -- with most going to European posts. Some have actually been pretty good diplomats. Most have had a wonderful time in Rome, Paris, London, Madrid and the like. The academy proposes dropping that percentage to maybe 10 percent. Then it lists eight "essential" criteria to be met by nominees, including "demonstrated interest and experience in foreign affairs . . . personal knowledge of the country involved, its region, people and language." This would replace the current threshold of simply having heard of the place. Some advocates of the proposal venture that with the fundraising bonanza made possible by the Internet, there's no need to sell ambassadorships. Perhaps, but the problem, to paraphrase the adage, is you can never raise enough political money. Never.
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