Envoy Envy? Dust Off That Portfolio.

Ladies and gentlemen! Start your lobbying engines -- it may already be too late -- for that cushy ambassadorship you've always dreamed of. The incoming Obama administration has helpfully notified all politically appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office.

We're hearing that some Obama backers have already been working on picking up plum assignments in about 50 fine locations, including Rome, Paris, London, Tokyo and the like. There are about 160 country ambassadorships, and historically about 30 percent of them go to political appointees -- early campaign supporters, fat-cat contributors, pals and such -- and the rest to career Foreign Service types.

The eviction notice, a fairly routine action, was sent to diplomatic posts last week, our colleague Glenn Kessler reports. Sometimes political ambassadors are permitted to stay on a bit in an incoming administration, but the sweeping nature of the directive suggests that Obama has little interest in keeping on many of President Bush's ambassadorial appointees.

This would be bad news for some folks who just arrived in their new digs. Kristen Silverberg, for example, who's now ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, took over the job in July. Barely time to unpack.

This is not to say that the political ambassadorships are by definition unimportant or all fun and games. Political ambassadors often do some heavy diplomatic lifting in places like Japan, France, China and Saudi Arabia.

But you must move quickly. We're already hearing talk, for example, that mega-wealthy John Thornton, former Goldman Sachs president and co-COO, has just resigned as a director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, citing "other business commitments," and may be eyeing an ambassadorship to the Middle Kingdom.

Of course, the vetting for a guy who's been a director of a major Chi-Com bank could present a few problems for the FBI, but . . .

Restoring Our Confidence

Speaking of foreign travel, U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief Thomas J. Donohue is off on a four-day trip to Europe to represent American business at the G-8 Business Summit in Paris. "I'm heading to Europe to underscore the importance of business leaders working together to restore investor and consumer confidence in order to jumpstart the global economy," he said in a news release issued by the Chamber. The goal of the meeting with the E.U. folks, we were told, "is to develop joint recommendations for dealing with the global economic crisis and financial regulatory reform." This seems something of a shift here for Donohue, whose general idea of reform is to get rid of those always onerous and burdensome regulations. Donohue was scheduled to stop in Brussels along the way so Belgium's Crown Prince Philippe could give him the "Commandeur de l'Ordre de la Couronne medal" for working to expand ties between us and the Belgians. We always wanted to be a "commandeur."

Building His 'Team'

Obama may be taking this "Team of Rivals" business a bit too seriously. Yesterday, he reached once more into the well of the vanquished and tapped New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- another candidate he beat for the nomination -- to be in his Cabinet. He's already got Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton set to be secretary of state and Sen. Joe Biden as vice president.

Sen. Chris Dodd is a bit busy these days dealing with the financial meltdown from his perch on the Senate Banking Committee. Rep. Dennis Kucinich might be a stretch.

But wait! There's former senator John Edwards. He may be available.

Playing Hard to Get?

Obama tried to reach across the partisan divide twice yesterday with a phone call to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, our colleague Anne E. Kornblut reports.