S. Blumenthal: The undersecretary's dangerous trip (K. Hughes)

[kskiska]

Karen Hughes takes her "Innocents Abroad" tour to the Middle East -- and plays into the hands of Osama bin Laden.

President Bush has no advisor more loyal and less self-serving than Karen Hughes. As governor of Texas he implicitly trusted the former Dallas television reporter turned press secretary with the tending of his image and words. She was mother hen of his persona. In the White House, Hughes devoted heart and soul to Bush as his communications director, until, suddenly, she returned home to Texas in 2002, citing her son's homesickness. There were reports that Karl Rove, jealous of power, had been sniping at her.

(snip)

This week, Hughes embarked on her first trip as undersecretary. Her initial statement resembled an elementary school presentation: "You might want to know why the countries. Egypt is of course the most populous Arab country ... Saudi Arabia is our second stop. It's obviously an important place in Islam and the keeper of its two holiest sites ... Turkey is also a country that encompasses people of many different backgrounds and beliefs, yet has the -- is proud of the saying that 'all are Turks.'"

Hughes appeared to be one of the pilgrims satirized by Mark Twain in his 1869 book, "Innocents Abroad," about his trip on "The Grand Holy Land Pleasure Excursion." "None of us had ever been anywhere before; we all hailed from the interior; travel was a wild novelty to us ... We always took care to make it understood that we were Americans -- Americans!"

more…
http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/09/29/hughes_diplomacy/index.html

[CottonBear]

1. She is supremely unqualified to represent the USA abroad.

* must really be in trouble in order for Rove to allow her back (if the article is correct in its analysis.) into the * inner circle.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Soccer Mom from Texas gonna teach the Arabs to luv America??

She is in way over her head...

No Training....

Not qualie3d

She gatta guard her Back

Nope, Odds are dismal

[hatrack]

3. Yeah, she probably rented "The Wind & The Lion" as homework

Either that, or "Aladdin" - it's all that her boss had on hand for her to brush up on.

[tom_paine]

5. However, she IS the face of Imperial Amerika

Unfortunately, she wishes to pretend she is an emissary of a Free America, and THAT she is no good at.

It is far easier for civilized people to behave falsely like barbarians, than it is for barabrians to behave falsely as civilized people.

Which is exactly what the representative of Tyranny and Lies, Karen Hughes, is trying to do...and failing.

That, and the rest of the world is not hypnotized by the Most Sophisticated and Wewll-Financed Lie Machine in all of Human History.

[existentialist]

4. I had posted

this same editorial, albeit edited a bit differently, here a few hours ago.

I agree that it needs some attention.

[Demeter]

6. Bush's Enabler

What is it that Bush has that encourages some women to hold his hand and wipe his bottom? Are they all frustrated Earth Mothers (then why not find someone worthy of such tender care)? Or just brainless boobs?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. I may not be an American, but I know the Constitution better than Hughes

When an Egyptian opposition leader inquired why President Bush mentions God in his speeches, she asked him "whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites 'one nation under God.'

That's rubbish. The US Constitution does not mention God at all. And yet here's a US government member lying to foreigners, claiming that it does. And the quote is accurate - State dept transcript. Yet another example of the religious right trying to Christianise the US Constitution.

[shrike]

8. You are right

It does not. (The Declaration of Independence does, but that's a different matter.)

Other presidents have, of course, invoked God in their speeches, but these were different times with different men at the helm.

[Karenina]

9. It's just a little phrase

from the "Pledge of Allegiance," that was added under duress in the McCarthy era... :rofl:

[coda]

10. Thanks for posting the link m_v.

I was looking (unsuccessfully) for the official cite.

"Her initial statement resembled an elementary school presentation: "

LOL!

It's too bad that before they went sending a novice (or "parochial person" Sid B) to speak for our country, they didn't supply her with Cliff Notes on the Constitution, too. Apparantly they ass_u_meD she had a basic understanding of it.

You can't leave anything to chance with this bunch of incompetents.

-

Hughes betrayed some nervousness in her first diplomatic foray, which will also take her to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. This is her first visit to any of the countries, and as she spoke to reporters she clutched briefing papers that appeared to be the diplomatic equivalent of Cliffs Notes. Turkey was a "democratic state," and Egypt was the "most populous" country in the region, the document said.


From the WP story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/25/AR2005092500647.html

Hughes Reaches Out Warily in Cairo

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 26, 2005; Page A16