Senate Confirms Soap Opera Producer as Ambassador to Hungary
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Angela Weiss/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Senate confirmed a producer of the soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful on Tuesday to serve as ambassador to Hungary — and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is not pleased with the decision.
Prior to the vote, McCain went on a tirade about how Colleen Bell, a soap opera producer and bundler for President Obama’s campaigns, is “unqualified” to represent the United States as an ambassador to Hungary.
“We’re about to vote on a totally unqualified individual to be ambassador to a nation which is very important to our national security interest,” McCain said on the Senate floor. “Her qualifications are as a producer of the television soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful, contributed $800,000 to Obama in the last election and bundled more than $2.1 million for President Obama’s re-election effort.”
“I am not against political appointees…I understand how the game is played, but here we are, a nation that is on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and we’re going to send the producer of The Bold and The Beautiful as the ambassador,” he continued. “I urge my colleagues to put a stop to this foolishness. I urge a no vote.”
Regardless of McCain’s urging, the Senate confirmed Bell to the ambassador post with a vote of 52-42.
McCain’s displeasure with Bell’s qualifications stems from a contentious confirmation hearing last February where multiple ambassador nominees bungled questions from senators. In her questioning with McCain, Bell struggled to name the U.S. strategic interests in Hungary.
After McCain’s rant on the Senate floor, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., defended Bell, saying she is “intelligent,” “successful” and “knows how to make friends.”
“You would think this is the first time that any president nominated someone that’s a political appointee. Just because somebody is a producer of a very popular show that doesn’t disqualify them. It’s ridiculous,” Boxer said on the Senate floor in response to McCain. “I could point out people you supported senator who perhaps didn’t work at all, so let’s be clear here. She’s an intelligent woman. She knows how to be successful. She’ll do a good job and she’ll do very well I think in this position because I know her well and she knows how to make friends and she’s not angry.”
In addition to Bell’s confirmation, the Senate approved Noah Mamet to be the next ambassador to Argentina. Mamet also had faced scrutiny at the same confirmation hearing as Bell when he admitted he had never set foot in Argentina.
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