A Diplomat Gets By Without Savoir-Faire

(by Walter Shapiro, "The USA Today")

WASHINGTON- Like every would-be diplomat, Howard Leach, a 70-year-old California billionaire, readied himself for his Senate confirmation hearing by enduring a 'murder board' in which he was peppered with pesky questions by his State Department prep team.

But the nattily dressed, white-haired agribusiness tycoon did not need to worry. During Thursday morning's hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, no one brought up the embarrassing gap in Leach's credentials to serve as the next ambassador to France. Apparently, it would have been impolite to mention that Leach is only now learning to speak French.

Yes, George W. Bush has chosen as his envoy to Paris a generous Republican donor who believes that English is the true language of love and diplomacy. Plum diplomatic postings are awarded in every administration to wealthy business leaders whose ties to the president are mostly financial. But, generally. These political appointees meet minimal standards. And when it comes to the vexing matter of dealing with the French, fluency in the language should not be too much to expect.

But Leach is unperturbed about his lack of preparation for his posting to Paris. In a brief interview after the hearing, Leach took pains to point out that he has been taking language lessons and that his wife, Gretchen, is fluent in French. 'The ambassadors to most countries do not speak the language of those countries,' he said. 'I do not believe anyone should have diplomatic discussions and negotiations in a foreign language that they are not familiar with, since it is easy to make mistakes or to be misunderstood.'

But France is a far cry from Kyrgyzstan. The ambassador to France shouldn't need the help of staff to read the morning newspapers or require a translator to explain the nuances of American foreign policy in a TV interview. In trying to justify his ambitions, Leach uttered a sentence guaranteed to make Parisians cringe:' I believe that as a tribute to French culture and their traditions that I should learn the French language.' The custodians of French culture will be so flattered.

Leach, who has served for 11 years on the board of regents of the University of California, may in time prove to be an adequate ambassador. It shouldn't be held against Leach that he donated $226,000 to republican candidates and committees in the 2000 campaign cycle, plus a thoughtful

$100,000 gift to the Bush-Cheney Inaugural committee. Nor is there anything wrong wjth wanting the title of 'ambassador' as the capstone to a long career. But it can be argued that Leach's patriotic yen to serve might have been satisfied by dispatching him to a less linguistically sensitive embassy, such as that in New Zealand.

Now that the Democrats have taken over the Senate, they might have been expected to pose a few tough questions before rubber-stamping Bush's ambassadorial appointees. But such scrutiny wasn't part of the agenda of Thursday hearing, which reviewed the qualifications of Leach and the nominees for the embassies in London, Moscow and Valletta, the capital of Malta. Instead, Joseph Biden, the new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, kept apologizing that pro-forma confirmations would be delayed by an unrelated dispute over organizing the Senate.

There was no need to quibble over the qualifications of respected career diplomat Alexander 'Sandy" Vershbow, who will be the next ambassador to Russia. William Parish, a wealthy patrician Kentucky race-horse breeder whose ties with the Bush family date to the early 1960s and who boasts a friendship with Queen Elizabeth, has the standard establishment pedigree to serve as our representative at the Court of St. James's. Even Anthony Gioia, the Upstate New York macaroni czar who served as president of the National Pasta Association, probably fits the bill as ambassador to Malta, a Mediterranean island nation that he courageously admitted he has never visited.

Vershbow aside, the other ambassadorial appointees won presidential gratitude for their political generosity. According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, Parish contributed $27,000 to GOP candidates and committees in the last campaign and threw in another $100,000 for the Bush inaugural. Gioia is a veteran republican fundraiser who hosted a reception for Bush at his Buffalo home that raised $500,000. But Gioia can be bipartisan in his favours. Introducing the soon-to-be ambassador to Malta to the committee, New York Democratic Rep, John LaFalce teasingly complained, ' I'm losing my finance chairman.'

During the two-hour hearing, not a single substantive question was directed at Leach. Biden did pointedly urge the nominee to consult with the outgoing ambassador to France, Felix Rohatyn, who learnt French as a Nazi-era refugee in that nation, about overstating in the Paris embassy. In response, Leach volunteered his commitment to 'right-sizing' embassy personnel. As the session drew to a close, Biden played his guess-who 's-coming-to-dinner card. With a broad smile the committee chairman announced, 'The bad news, Mr. Parish and Mr. Leach, is that I have to be in Paris and London quite often, and

you may see me again.

It turns out that Leach is not the only one in the ambassadorial set who will be calling France home. Because of Britain's rigorous animal-importation laws, Parish's pet dog, a white Maltese named Cotton, is enduring a six-month quarantine in France before being allowed to cross the English Channel. Talking about Cotton's ordeal after the hearing, Sarah Parish, the wife of the ambassador-designate, joked, 'She's learning French.' These days, it seems like everybody is, even our next ambassador to France.

Discussion questions and tasks

1. Compare the four nominees for the embassies and their qualifications. Are
they well-suited to diplomatic work?

2. How did the nominees win presidential gratitude? From your point of view, is
there anything wrong with wanting the title of ambassador?

3. How does Howard Leach take his lack of preparation for the posting? Do you
approve of this attitude? Why?/Why not?

Exercise 21 Find the Russian equivalents for the following word combinations:

Senate confirmation hearing

generous donor

political appointees

to justify one's ambitions

nominees for the embassies

respected career diplomat

to volunteer one's commitment to

Exercise 22

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