When the phone rang at the bar of a Brussels restaurant in 1991, it was extraordinary -- not just because the president of the United States was on the other end, but because the message being delivered by George H.W. Bush flouted more than 200 years of tradition when it comes to how Washington doles out ambassadorships.
In short, not all ambassadorships are created equal.
Raymond Seitz was out to dinner when he was summoned to the bar for that unexpected telephone call more than 20 years ago. It was the White House, telling him to hold for the president of the United States.
What most caught Seitz off guard was what the commander-in-chief said. He told Seitz that he was making him ambassador to the Court of St. James’s.
"You mean to the one in London?" Seitz responded, incredulous. He just wanted to make sure.
Seitz could be excused for what he called his "utter disbelief." After all, in the more than 200-year history of America sending envoys to Britain, no career diplomat had ever been picked for the top post.
It's been 22 years since that phone call -- and it's the last time a career diplomat was selected as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.
"I think they do it once every 200 years," Seitz, 72, joked in an interview from his home in a rural New Hampshire town, where he's now retired.
In the next few weeks, President Barack Obama will once again name an ambassador to London, as well as to a raft of other countries. High-profile political appointees will again likely top the list, with rumors swirling about appointments for Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, and even Vogue magazine editor Anna Wintour, a top Obama fundraiser.
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