How Much Does It Cost to Be Ambassador to Hungary?

Watching John McCain set-up a fellow senator like a bowling pin is a rare Washington pleasure. Even when he does it in Budapest.

I was planning to take on (soon to be Her Excellency) Ms. Bell ever since I learned she was appointed and created quite a buzz in diplomatic circles immediately.

To the above piece I only have a few notes to add.

– The story is interesting and mostly true, I just sense a bit of bias here.

– Personally I don’t see how appointing a non-career diplomat for a foreign post would be such a tragedy. It happened before, countless times actually, and it can always turn out various ways.

– Now, corruption is another thing, if we really want to label this. I wouldn’t. I am not necessarily saying that buying diplomatic posts is a positive thing, I am just saying it is less harmful than a number of other types of corruption that are not even talked about.

– I certainly believe that trained and skilled diplomats with a history in foreign service could fill these posts the best. Period.

– But: this doesn’t automatically mean that non-career diplomats are surely, always and without an exception bad for the job.

– Ms. Bell has certainly achieved one or two things in her life so far, so why should we assume she will be bad at this?

Let’s just wait and see before we judge, why don’t we?