To be really correct, we would have to say that Mr. Lawrence first purchased the ambassadorship to Switzerland with his donations. The ambassadorship then allowed him, technically, to qualify to lie among true war heroes at the nation's most revered burial spot. But today's Outrage is not about Mr. Lawrence. After all, buying political favors and positions is a time-honored Washington tradition. Long before Kennedy family patriarch Joseph Kennedy purchased the ambassadorship to Great Britain, politicians had been buying and selling such positions.
Ambassadorships are excellent political plums.
They offer the chance to live abroad at government expense while occupying a position of great prestige and a high social profile. Plus, there's no real work to be done. John Kenneth Galbraith said that he could finish all his daily work as ambassador to France in less than an hour. Actually, in this age of instant communications, ambassadorships are really almost a complete sinecure. Here at the DO we're always on the lookout for innovation.