By PHK
So where was Karen Hughes?
Last week, the State Department-hosted a two day conference for 120 U.S. university presidents. The Department and the Bush Administration pulled out all the stops. This included a keynote address by none other than W himself to announce the launch of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) a new initiative to request $114 million in the coming fiscal year (FY’07) for desperately needed foreign language and cultural training for American students in “critical languages” beginning in kindergarten.
Since it’s unclear how much of the money will become available to universities and the university presidents foremost wanted to hear about what the U.S. government was going to do to help reverse the trend of declining foreign students on American campuses thanks to restrictive visa policies in place since 9/11, the President’s speech was reportedly received mostly with polite applause and cautious optimism.
But where was Karen Hughes? How could it be that our heavily publicized public diplomacy Czarina – who oversees both public diplomacy and public affairs at the Department, is one of W’s chief confidantes and last fall was seen all over the U.S. media - suddenly missed a golden media opportunity to appear with the President in prime time?
Turns out she was at the Rose Bowl - only to show up the conference’s final day with Laura Bush in tow.
Condi Rice introduced the President. John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings were on the platform when the President spoke. W also singled out Deputy Secretary of State Bob Zoellick, Senators Richard Lugar and Pat Roberts. Dina Powell, the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Barry Lowenkron, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor separately briefed the media on details about the new National Security Language Initiative. But nary a word about Under Secretary Hughes. Not even a reference in the President’s speech that she may have been traveling abroad, was home ill with pneumonia, or attending a family funeral. Nada. The President even mentioned Rumsfeld and Ariel Sharon.
What was even stranger was that Hughes’ own inaugural Town Meeting speech on September 8 at the State Department stressed her concern about and strong support for the development of precisely such a foreign language and cultural training initiative for Americans. I remember commenting about it favorably on WhirledView.
So why was Hughes airbrushed out on this important occasion? Rest assured. Turns out she was just cheering on her favorite team in sunny Southern California.
But then, when was higher education ever more important than athletics for the members of this administration? And given the paltry size of the administration’s $114 million FY07 funding request for this incredibly important education initiative compared with the billion plus we spend in Iraq each week, maybe W should have gone to Pasadena, too - or maybe back to chopping wood on the ranch.