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March 14, 2005

The Female Triumvirate at Foggy Bottom

According to The Note, Karen Hughes is heading to Foggy Bottom and will be (pending Senate confirmation) Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Glad to know the only pre-qualification these days for top diplomatic posts is being A Really Good Friend of Shrub. After all, her previous work includes being a television reporter - clearly she must have the chops for the job. 31 year-old Dina Powell, currently head of personnel at the White House, will be Hughes' deputy and the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. (In addition to being a RGFS, Egyptian-born Powell speaks fluent Arabic, so at least she has some background in her new post.)

I suppose I should be happy that two strong females from Shrub's inner circle are joining Condi at State. After all, their close ties to Shrub mean State will finally get some recognition in the bureaucratic mind fuck that is DC. Nevertheless, I'm far from convinced State will be a force for good in the coming years. Here's my reasons:

1. Condi is stuck in a Cold War mindset. Did you see her on This Week and Meet the Press? She thinks we need to engage the Middle East in the same ways we engaged Europe during the Cold War. Apparently, we're going to invade their countries with hundreds of mindless backpacking college students and try to convince them to do some foreign exchange programs and then over power their domestic economies with our American-owned multi-national corporations' products.

2. Hughes is the spin-doctor behind Shrub. Meaning she makes his terrible steal from the poor to give money to the rich policies look warm and fuzzy. Not exactly the mastermind I want in charge of public diplomacy.

3. Powell seems like a nice enough woman. Except she is Shrub's #1 head hunter. Anyone who hunts for Shrub appointees and is good at must agree with his policies. That's not a good thing.

4. Shrub already appointed (pending Senate confirmation) John Bolton as Ambassador to the UN. Not only does Bolton have no respect for the UN, Shrub doesn't either.

Further reading:
ABC's The Note
"Karen Hughes named to State Department post: Bush confidante tasked with bettering U.S. image in Muslim world," by the Associated Press
"Bush's U.N. post choice seen as insult to organization," by Thomas DeFrank, New York Daily News (reposted in the Kansas City Star)

Posted by cj at March 14, 2005 5:31 PM

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