DAVID THORNE, who was sworn in last night at the Moakley Courthouse as President Obama’s ambassador to Italy, has a strong connection to that country. He spent much of his childhood in Rome, where his father was a diplomat and publisher. He speaks fluent Italian. But his prime credential is closer to home: his friend John F. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Thorne is Kerry’s former college roommate, twin brother to Kerry’s first wife, uncle to his two daughters. More recently, he played the role of indefatigable buddy during Kerry’s 2004 presidential race, in which Thorne vouched for Kerry as a man’s man - flying planes, playing hockey, having beers.
And now the two pals can enjoy their Morettis in the lavish confines of Villa Taverna, the ambassador’s residence in Rome, if not in the US Embassy itself, a palace so vast that scholars have chronicled its art collection.
Thorne is filling the time-honored role of political appointee as ambassador to Rome, as fellow Bostonians Maxwell Raab (under Ronald Reagan) and John Volpe (under Richard Nixon) did in previous presidencies. Usually, political appointees earn their presidential payoffs by harvesting campaign funds, as did nursing-home magnate Alan Solomont of Weston, who is Obama’s pick for ambassador to Spain, and Barry B. White, the former chief executive of Boston’s Foley, Hoag LLP, who is ticketed for Norway. Then there’s Hollywood executive Charles H. Rivkin, who steered the careers of the Muppets before raising a bushel of campaign cash and becoming Obama’s appointee to France.
In other cases, key politicians are able to pass on their political credits to a family member or friend, like accumulated miles in a frequent-flyer plan. Ted Kennedy, for one, saw his sister Jean Kennedy Smith become ambassador to Ireland under Bill Clinton.
There is no reason to believe that Thorne will be any less successful as ambassador than the average political appointee. Raab and Volpe lived large in Rome without causing any international incidents. The Colosseum didn’t crumble and the limoncello stayed cold. And Thorne, to his credit, knows the country, speaks its language, and plans to promote Italian entrepreneurship. But the practice of appointing political cronies to plush European ambassadorships is only marginally less offensive when there’s a plausible connection between the nominee and the country.
Yes, sometimes political appointees bring special skills - business contacts, close relationships with the president, political passions - that can be useful in an ambassador. But if the appointment is so fundamentally unserious that it gets passed off as a political debt, then Congress ought to take a look at all the money being spent on ambassadorial perks.
One suspects this is not an issue that the Foreign Relations Committee is going to take up anytime soon.
Correction: This editorial misspelled the name of former ambassador Maxwell Rabb.
