Washington (CNN) -- It's not every day that White House has to defend its decision to nominate a soap opera producer to represent the country on one of the highest diplomatic levels.
But it was that kind of Tuesday.
Asked at the daily press
briefing what makes "The Bold and The Beautiful" producer Colleen Bell
qualified to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, White House spokesman
Josh Earnest didn't exactly have an explanation.
"(She's) somebody who obviously has succeeded in, you know, in the business world," Earnest said.
"And she is somebody that
the President has confidence will be able to maintain our relationship
with the government and the people of Hungary."
Earnest also denied that
Bell's hand in raising millions of dollars for the President's
re-election campaign had anything to do with her appointment.
"Well, I can tell you that that's not the reason she was chosen," he said.
Earnest said the reason
Bell was nominated for the post was because the President "has complete
confidence in her ability to represent the United States in that
country."
But not everyone will be satisfied with that answer.
Just hours before, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, blasted Bell's nomination on the Senate floor.
"We're about to vote on a
totally unqualified individual to be ambassador to a nation which is
very important to our national security interests," he said.
"I am not against
political appointees ... but here we are, a nation that's on the verge
of seceded its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with
Vladimir Putin and we're gonna send the producer of 'The Bold and the
Beautiful' as our ambassador," McCain said.
Bell was confirmed to
the position Tuesday by a Democrat-led Senate. The chamber also
confirmed Noah Mamet, another Democratic fundraiser, as the ambassador
to Argentina.
This is not the first
diplomatic position the President has selected Bell for. In 2010, Obama
appointed Bell to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts at the
Kennedy Center.