Free Republic

Invitees : Karen Hughes, Hunter Hunt, Ray Hunt, Kay Bailey Hutchison,Harriet Miers, Holly Kuzmich, Mark Langdale, Mike Meece, James C Oberwetter, Jeanne L Phillips, Karl Rove, Joe Strauss.

Half-baked Barbara By John McCaslin October 7, 2005 It's not easy being the master of ceremonies for a roast when half of the roasters don't show up. Ask political commentator Mark Shields, who found himself in that uncomfortable position Wednesday evening as the Spina Bifida Association attempted to put TV personality Barbara Walters in the "hot seat" at the Hyatt Regency Washington. "This is more like a bake-off," a visibly embarrassed Mrs. Walters said after the roasting, expressing disappointment that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and fellow roaster Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana were no-shows. As it...

<p>When I traveled the world representing the United States during the George W. Bush administration, I was often confronted by people who wanted to blame the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on American foreign policy.</p> <p>U.S. support for Israel, along with the suffering of the Palestinian people, they told me, had spawned the resentment and anger that resulted in the attacks on our country.</p>

AUSTIN, Texas: Former presidential aide Karen Hughes is joining the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller as global vice chairwoman, the company said Wednesday. Hughes, who was an aide to George W. Bush in the White House and when he was Texas governor, will report to Mark Penn, the Burson-Marsteller worldwide president and chief executive who was chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign. "Karen is one of the leading communications strategists working today," Penn said. "She brings enormous strategic insights coupled with the ability to drive successful campaigns at the highest levels of the political, governmental and corporate...

Excerpt- WASHINGTON -- Two hard-charging political operatives are teaming up to create a bipartisan consulting organization to advise corporations in crisis -- as they work to burnish their own reputations as well. Former Clinton strategist Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, is hiring former Bush adviser Karen Hughes as a vice chairman, the principals say. The political combatants, known for their partisan efforts, decided to combine forces to offer a one-stop crisis-communication and public-affairs shop to corporations caught in front-page headlines or faced with a changing Washington. ~ snip ~

President Bush intends to name a well-known conservative commentator and journalist to lead the State Department's struggling efforts to improve the U.S.'s image abroad, replacing long-time confidante Karen Hughes, who is leaving government by the end of the year, The Associated Press has learned. Bush plans to tap James K. Glassman, now chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America, to be the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, administration officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made. The officials said the...

On the Resignation of Karen Hughes My column from this weekend's National Post: In the movie “Wag the Dog,” an embattled president hires a Hollywood producer to retrieve his image. The producer presents the president with a speech. Top aides read it over and pronounce it “corny.” The producer explodes in rage. “Corny? Corny? Of course it’s corny!” Nobody except extreme political junkies had ever heard of Karen Hughes back then. But soon all the world was to become familiar with the style of work anticipated by the authors of “Wag the Dog.” As ne of the most trusted aides...

This morning President Bush spoke to business owners at the 2007 Grocery Manufacturers Association/Food Products Association Fall Conference in Washington. “One of the reasons I've come by is to remind you how important you are to our economy… my philosophy is,I don't believe the role of government is to try to create wealth. It's to create the environment in which people are willing to risk capital, to expand their businesses”(Transcript) The president again took this opportunity to urge Congress to “stop playing politics” and get back to work. The pressure seems to be working: Democrats have finally scheduled a confirmation...

Karen Hughes, who led efforts to improve the U.S. image abroad and was one of President Bush's last remaining advisers from the close circle of Texas aides, will leave the government at the end of the year,.

Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy is going to be the speaker this weekend at a Texas Muslim Scholarship Fund banquet in the Dallas area. The fund, and banquet, are sponsored by the Texas-based Freedom & Justice Foundation, which is run by Mohamed Elibiary." "...Elibiary was one of the speakers at the local event billed as a "Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary, the Ayatollah Khomeini" a few years back here in town."

When Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., in June 1957, his 500-word talk effused good will ("Civilization owes to the Islamic world some of its most important tools and achievements") even as the American president embarrassingly bumbled (Muslims in the United States, he declared, have the right to their "own church"). Conspicuously, he included nary a word about policy. Exactly 50 years later, standing shoeless, George W. Bush rededicated the center last week. His 1,600-word speech also praised medieval Islamic culture ("We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has enriched civilization for centuries"),...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Austin, Tex. SO what can we expect from Karen P. Hughes if she is confirmed as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs? What steps will President Bush's confidante take to rehabilitate America's image in the Arab world and around the globe? While reporters and Congressional staffers are combing Ms. Hughes's public statements, interviews and speeches in advance of her confirmation hearings, I accidentally stumbled into a little research project of my own. In my garage. Back in 1976, Karen Hughes - then Karen Parfitt - was my star journalism student at Southern Methodist University...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HOTSOUP.com®, today announced that former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton, Governor Mitt Romney, and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes, will join the Web site's discussions in the coming weeks and months. Also joining the lineup are entertainer Jon Bon Jovi, Producer/American Idol judge Randy Jackson, and Lead Pastor of the National Community Church, Mark Batterson. "People want to get involved and participate in their communities, but they really don't know where to begin," said Jon Bon Jovi, lead singer of Bon Jovi. "There's so much noise and spin out there right...

WASHINGTON -- It may take decades to change anti-American feelings around the world that have been aggravated by war in Iraq, U.S. policy toward Israel and America's "sex and violence" culture, the State Department official in charge of dealing with the U.S. image abroad said Thursday. "The anti-Americanism, the concern around the world ... this ideological struggle, it's not going to change" quickly, Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's going to be the work of years and maybe decades." Hughes, a longtime adviser to President Bush, has worked for more than a...

by Mark Finkelstein June 9, 2006 I'm on a quick strike down to NYC today to attend a talk radio convention. And speaking of quick strikes, Matt Lauer launched one at Karen Hughes on this morning's 'Today.' Hughes, who serves as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, was on to discuss US relations in the Arab world in the, ahem, wake of the killing of Zarqawi. At the end of the interview, Lauer hit Hughes with this 21/2-month old quote from Donald Rumsfeld: "If I were grading, I would say we probably deserve a D or...

Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 12:39 pm Press Release: US State Department Press Roundtable Karen Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Dubai, United Arab Emirates February 20, 2006 Under Secretary Hughes: We've had a great visit and one of the things I've tried to do as I travel around the world is to reach out and listen, because I view public diplomacy as very much a conversation, which means that I'm not just coming into talk with people but I'm coming to listen to people and to take that opinion back to the United States and to share...

ANYONE following the pattern of the US foreign policy under the Bush administration will be baffled by the widely divergent trends that have surfaced during the last five years. President Bush began his journey by engaging China over the shooting down of an American plane which intruded into Chinese airspace. The US blew hot and cold over the issue. The heat gradually subsided. The turn-over of annual business between America and China is the largest in the world. The bilateral trade between the countries has given China a great lead. This has become a sore point with America blaming China...

It comes as a relief to learn that Karen Hughes, who runs the public diplomacy shop at the U.S. State Department, has suspended the pathetic effort to reach out to Arab and other foreign audiences via a taxpayer-funded magazine named Hi International (best remembered for a notorious June 2005 article, "Sharp-Dressed Men," that told how "real men moisturize"). It's startling to realize that $4.5 million a year produced a mere 55,000 monthly copies of Hi and (according to alexa.com) a website that ranks about 900,000th from the top, suggesting it gets about 100 hits a day. The magazine has been...

Those who despise George Bush see him as the Second Coming of Richard Nixon, and they wish for nothing more fervently than a Second Going: a Watergate-magnitude scandal that will drive him from office. Their last best hope is Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, appointed two years ago to investigate the CIA's complaint that Valerie Plame's CIA employ had been leaked to columnist Robert Novak, seemed destined to disappoint them. A month ago, even a week ago, it was possible without delusion to believe that Fitzgerald's investigation would end without indictments. But no longer. Thanks to a stream of leaks that have...

President Bush held a private 30-minute meeting in the Oval Office with a group of Palestinian officials last week, officials confirmed yesterday. The impetus for the rare session was presidential confidante and undersecretary of state Karen Hughes, who had received an earful of complaints about the administration's Palestinian policy during a just-completed tour of the Middle East. Hughes, who is charged with burnishing the U.S. image, mentioned the Palestinian officials during a lunch with Bush last Wednesday, noting that they were in town preparing for the White House visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Oct. 20. It is a...