Obama's ambassadors: Donors included

by Mark Silva

To the victors go the spoils -- and London, and Paris, and Copenhagen, and Tokyo.

President Barack Obama, like his predecessors, is dispatching some of the most prolific fundraisers of his presidential campaign to some of the nation's most prestigious foreign embassies, Bloomberg News' Jonathan Salant and Julianna Goodman report.

Such as Louis Susman, 71, a retired Citigroup Inc. senior investment banker who raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for Obama's presidential campaign and another $300,000 for his inauguration. "On Wednesday,'' they note, "Obama nominated Susman to the post formally known as the Court of St. James'' -- U.S. ambassador to the U.K.

"Like Andrew Mellon, Joseph Kennedy and Walter Annenberg before him,'' Bloomberg's Salant and Goodman report, "Susman's credentials stem more from involvement in financing party politics than foreign policy experience. ''

Four of 12 diplomatic posts that the White House filled this week went to big donors.

"he practice of rewarding donors is a remnant of the spoils system that we abolished in the civil service," said career diplomat Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and a former ambassador to Afghanistan. "It is a dismal testimony to the importance of money in our electoral system."

"That said, the republic will survive the president selling a few embassies."

The others: -

John Roos, chief executive officer of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based law firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, will serve as ambassador to Japan. He raised more than $500,000 for Obama.

- Charles Rivkin, chief executive officer of Wildbrain Inc., will serve as ambassador to France. Rivkin collected more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign and $300,000 for his inauguration.

- Laurie Fulton, a partner with the law firm of Williams & Connolly, will serve as ambassador to Denmark. Fulton, 59, raised $100,000 to $200,000.

Susman said he is "excited by the opportunity to serve our country."

A call to Fulton was referred to the White House. Roos, 54, and Rivkin, 47, didn't respond to requests for comment, Bloomberg reports.

Two other nominees - Vilma Martinez, 65, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson in California bound for Argentina, and Miguel Diaz, 46, a theology professor at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., bound for the Vatican - also supported Obama.

Diaz, who earned his doctorate in theology from the University of Notre Dame, contributed $1,000 to Obama's campaign last year. Fluent in Spanish and Italian, he was also a member of the Obama campaign's Catholic advisory board.

On St. Patrick's Day, Obama also named Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, as ambassador to Ireland. Rooney, 76, a Republican, endorsed Obama last year and campaigned for him in Pennsylvania.

In January, Obama conceded that he would not abandon a practice of rewarding some top supporters with embassies. "It would be disingenuous for me to suggest that there are not going to be some excellent public servants but who haven't come through the ranks of the civil service,'' the incoming president said then.