Good question (tip to Instapundit):
The climax of French President Francois Hollande's three-day state visit comes Tuesday night, with a black-tie state dinner at the White House. The Obamas have only held six state dinners ever. ...
But you know who isn't coming? The U.S. Ambassador to France. You know why? Because we don't have one.
In years and administrations past, the ambassador to France is a role that goes not to a career diplomat, but to the president's biggest fundraisers.
We've had several idiots sent up for approval recently--and let's not forget Caroline Kennedy being sent to Japan where she forgot she is America's ambassador to Japan and not PETA's ambassador--whose only qualification is the amount of money they raised for the president's political campaign.
I will readily stipulate that past presidents, including Republicans, have done the same thing.
But even aside from the notion that President Obama would change Washington, D.C., with hope and change, given that President Obama was the first presidential candidate to abandon public election financing which limits spending (imagine the outrage had a Republican forged this new spending trail), the need for "bundlers" to get around campaign finance limits on individual contributions is even more important to raise the massive amount of money that President Obama spent to win election and reelection.
So there are many more people to be rewarded. And oddly enough, they won't accept postings to South Sudan or any of the "Stans."
I think I'd be in favor of legislation that requires State Department professionals to be ambassadors, with only 5 free political appointees subject to current Senate approval and maybe some other provision that allows an exception beyond that political 5 for compelling reasons that Congress must agree to.
