‘Turkey is a Democratic State’
After days of searching, I’ve found the source article that allows me to post this story. I have never been happier.
Karen Hughes, long-time PR flack for George W. Bush, and recently-appointed Undersecretary of State (yes, really) in charge of Making Them Love Us in the Middle East, is on her first-ever tour of the region.
Of course, in the post-Brownie world, the Bush Administration wouldn’t dream of sending untalented political hacks to do grown-ups’ work, would they?
Her trip has been more or less the disaster that you might imagine, with groups of Saudi women lecturing her to stop talking down to them — even though she tried to establish rapport by introducing herself as a Working Mom! Go figure.
True to her instincts, Hughes is touring with a planeload of reporters, rather than a small staff of advisers, as was done by previous administrations. This has paid big dividends, at least in terms of providing fodder for my own amusement:
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.
Read the Full Story in The Washington Post
“Hughes Reaches Out Warily in Cairo”
Glenn Kessler
September 25, 2005
Put the shoe on the other foot. Let’s say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans’ image of Islam. It’s doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented “Good morning.” Yet this would be the clueless counterpart to Karen Hughes, with her lame attempts at bonding (”I’m a working mom”) and her tin-eared assurances that President Bush is a man of God (you can almost hear the Muslim women thinking, “Yes, we know, that’s why he’s relaunched the Crusades”).
Read the Full Story in Slate
“Karen Hughes, Stay Home! (What on earth is she doing in the Middle East?)”
Fred Kaplan
September 29, 2005
And finally, C. J. Silverio highlights Ms. Hughs’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of what is not in our Constitution:
QUESTION: Going back to the subject of the President, did anyone speak specifically about President Bush — their feelings about him, objections to him?
UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: I haven’t really heard a lot of that. I had one person at one lunch raise the issue of the President mentioning God in his speeches. And I asked whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites “one nation under God”…
Read the Full Briefing from the Department of State:
“Briefing En Route Ankara, Turkey”
Karen Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
September 26, 2005
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