Blown Call

Today President Bush names one of his closest advisers, Karen Hughes. to the critical post of Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.

Obviously this choice demonstrates the importance the President places on this position -- other than Condi and Karl Rove, Karen Hughes may be the adviser he most trusts, and that's obviously a good thing. That he cares about the job, I mean.

Yet my own feelings about her aside (I hate her writing; I believe she puts in a tone of real condescension towards an audience that is notable and distasteful) it's hard to think of a worse choice.

For one thing, she's a domestic policy adviser. She knows nothing about the Islamic world, has no expertise in the area or in foreign policy generally. (Ironically they named as her deputy, apparently, a woman born in Egypt who's fluent in Arabic.)

That weakness can be overlooked if she's got other strengths, but the problem here is that she has essentially the same great weakness one of the earlier holders of this office. When Colin Powell nominated Charlotte Beers for this office, bringing in someone from the advertizing world, it was completely predictable that it would be a disaster. When part of the problem is that the Arab world thinks we view them as one great, big, market, and don't acknowledge them as peers but only as consumers for our stuff, you don't insult them by bringing in someone who wants to market to them. (And they were right: her comments aside, the United States and her values are not a "brand" to be marketed.)

So who do we bring in now? Someone with no history of dealing with other countries, but who's known as a master of political spin.

One of my old rhetoric professors had a saying: Great art conceals art.

Look at the piece Yahoo already picked to link to -- "Karen Hughes: Bush's Spinner to the World."

And just to add icing to the cake, she left Washington for family reasons. She's about to be available again because her son is about to go off to college. But she won't be available on a full time basis, it was reported tonight, until the summer.

Are you kidding me? This position is absolutely critical to this country. You're either available or you're not, and Hughes isn't so perfect, so irreplaceable, that this kind of a deal -- we'll take you part time till you're ready at your convenience -- is justifiable.

We say over and over again how important strategic diplomacy is and yet when it comes to this position, the person who represents the importance we place on that concept to the rest of the world, we haven't been able to get it right since 9/11.

Blown call.

Comments

[Kathy K]

Whether she'll be good at it or not may depend a lot on that deputy... and how much Karen listens to her.
But I'll agree with everything you said about her running off for 'family reasons' and the 'part time' thing. (I'm beginning to wonder if her son is a major nutcase or something... sounds like she thinks she's got to ride herd on him.)

[Donna Goddard]

She's a mother and a Christian first, political animal second. She has great integrity and intelligence. I understand her considerably more than I understand you. And I liked her book a lot! I ddn't see any condescension in her writing, but I do see it in your comments about her.
Her son is a very well adjusted young man - she left for VERY good reasons - because it was important to her family. Pardon me if no one in this country seems to be able to understand that anymore. Anyway, why don't you wait to see what she does before you attack.
She might surprise you.

[dauber]

I meant I see it in her speech writing, not in her book. If she wants to leave public life for her family, that's her choice, and you are certainly right it's a choice worthy of respect and I have no problem with that whatsoever, but my problem is if she makes that choice she has to understand it isn't even an either/or choice, but she has to to take herself out of a certain category of jobs, particularly those that everyone agrees are important to national security, if she isn't willing to make certain compromises.

Plenty of women balance those jobs with family -- but FROM WASHINGTON and full time. There are limits to how far those balances can go without certain compromises.

And, btw, it isn't like her son is still a little kid.

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