An Undiplomatic Display : * display at the State Department

[meegbear]

State Department types were taken aback last week to find that a longtime diplomatic photo exhibit along a busy corridor to the cafeteria had been taken down. The two dozen mostly grainy black and white shots were a historic progression of great diplomatic moments, sources recalled.

There was an original political cartoon from the Jefferson era showing Britain and France pick-pocketing the Americans; there were pictures of negotiations with Indian tribes over land; President Woodrow Wilson at Versailles; former secretary of state Elihu Root somewhere; Roosevelt and Churchill signing the Atlantic Charter; former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze in cowboy boots at Jackson Hole; a splendid shot of the old State Department building; and a photo of President Ronald Reagan at a meeting with a very young Colin L. Powell seated behind him.

Then they were gone. And what was put up in their place? What else? A George W. Bush family album montage of 21 large photos of the president as diplomat.

<snip>

The new exhibit -- actually it was on a lesser-traveled corridor on the first floor for several months -- was sent over from the White House at the request of State's administration folks. It's part of an effort to "spruce up the building . . . liven up the halls," one official said. There are other similar photos on other floors, we were told. The old photos are to be re-hung in that other corridor once it's painted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21378-2003Sep16.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. When will the statutes of W be put up in the squares ........

of all American cities? Isn't it time to replace all those Civil War heroes and folks the towns are named after? Hope they get them up before Jan. 2005....I want to be able to pull some down after we're liberated!!

[damnraddem]

4. Yeah, the pigeons are impatient.

They've got some great loads built up, and when the statues are in place, they're guano let fly.

[Doctor Panacea]

2. Oh, the chimp!

:grr:

[KC21304]

3. Sounds to me like they put up all the pictures they could find

of the 2 or 3 times Bush has been out of the country.