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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...

Karen Hughes, the US presidential envoy visited Saudi Arabia for a day during a tour of the region and met with female students al Dar al Hekma College for girls in Jeddah. As expected, the meeting proved controversial and saw the students express views that appeared, for the most part, aimed at provoking the diplomat who indicated she was pleased with their “intelligent and frank” responses. However, were the girls honest in their discussion with Hughes? Quizzed about employment opportunities and the driving debate in Saudi Arabia and asked to give their opinions on US foreign policy, the students responded...

Ms. Hughes clearly grasps that America's greatest "selling point" is our freedom, a theme she returned to repeatedly on her trip. Speaking to an audience of Saudi women in Jeddah, Ms. Hughes offered the example of driving--something women in the Kingdom are legally banned from doing--to make the essential point. "I believe women should be full and equal participants in society," she said. "And I feel as an American woman that my ability to drive is an important part of my freedom. It has allowed me to work during my career, it has allowed me to go to the grocery...

President Bush met with Secretary Rumsfeld, Generals Pace and Petraeus to discuss progress in Iraq. President and Laura Bush visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Medical Center. The White House announced that the president will travel to Latin America in November for the Summit of the Americas and meetings with the presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Panama. The president had [a no doubt working] lunch with Condi Rice and Karen Hughes at the White House. UK's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla will meet President Bush when they travel to the United States for their first joint official tour, a...

CAIRO – As Karen Hughes, the newly appointed head of U.S. public diplomacy, began her first visit to the Middle East last week, an Arab newspaper published a cartoon of the “Ugly American”. It showed President George Bush sitting in front of a mirror, with a thick layer of make up on his face. He turns to Hughes and asks her for more make up and a strong perfume. The message was: America cannot hide its ugliness. Its arrogance and actions carried out without thought to consequence have made it so unattractive that nothing will turn an ugly face pretty....

The inaugural Middle East tour of Karen Hughes, America's chief public diplomat, has occasioned yet another round of hand-wringing over the crisis of Arab anti-Americanism. Reuters explained that "the sagging American image abroad needed a facelift," while The Christian Science Monitor predicted that Hughes "won't have to listen too closely to hear the widespread anger over perceived U.S. arrogance and heavy-handedness." At the same time, the just-leaked findings of the congressionally mandated Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy state bluntly that "America's image and reputation abroad could hardly be worse." None of this comes as much of a surprise. After all,...

Karen of Arabia From the October 10, 2005 issue: I, Mom meets the imams. by Jonathan Karl 10/10/2005, Volume 011, Issue 04 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia WHEN KAREN HUGHES'S MOTORCADE pulled up to Dar Al-Hekma women's college in Jeddah, there was one pressing question for the reporters traveling with her: Would we be allowed inside? America's new public diplomacy czar had arrived to hold a town hall meeting with about 500 Saudi women. Unlike the more controlled events with "opinion leaders," this had the potential for real unpredictability. When had any group of women in Saudi Arabia been invited to question...

Karen Hughes, stay home. The president's confidante has been on a "listening tour" to "start a conversation with the rest of the world" — namely, the Muslim world, beginning with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — but there were too many times when she just didn't know what to say. A Washington Post anecdote from day one captures the disconnect. Asked in Egypt whether she was going to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood, the opposition party banned by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak with deep roots in terrorism and a catchy motto ("Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader....

...More than 70 percent of what's broadcast on Arab TV stations... is U.S.-made; 80 percent of the films shown in Arab cinemas are made in Hollywood.... More than half of all major articles in the two main pan-Arab daily newspapers come from The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Time magazines.... ...Stroll in the streets where books and video and audio tapes are on sale... 90 percent of the items vilifying America come from American, French and British authors. No Arab anti-American has produced anything like the conspiracy theories that American intellectuals...

Arab women shun Bush confidante By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 30/09/2005) A confidante and former chief image-maker to President George W Bush has discovered the limits of the spin doctor's art on her first tour of the Islamic world. Karen Hughes, the new US under-secretary for public diplomacy, was told by professional women in Saudi Arabia and Turkey that she and America failed to understand them. Her tour had been designed to underline the Bush administration's new commitment to improving its image in Muslim countries. Speaking to women in the Saudi city of Jeddah, the former television reporter who...

Cairo - A close aide to US President George W Bush arrived in Egypt on the first leg of a tour aimed at improving the image of an administration widely reviled over its support for Israel and the Iraq war. US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes kicked off her two-day visit by meeting Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the head of the Al-Azhar mosque, which is the leading seat of learning in Sunni Islam. Hughes, who was sworn in earlier this month, said she accepted the job to "more aggressively respond to rumours, inaccuracies and hate speech"....

President Bush might as well have asked Karen Hughes - his friend and longtime political adviser - to hold back Hurricane Katrina, because he has assigned her an equally impossible task. In naming Hughes undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, the president wants her to improve America's image abroad and specifically in the Muslim world. The Bush Administration believes that image has been distorted and the message concerning what America stands for is not getting out. The problem with this thinking is that the Muslim world's position regarding the United States is rooted in fundamental political and most especially religious...

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's closest advisers, told a gathering of American Muslims on Friday that part of her new State Department job is to help amplify the voices of groups like theirs that are condemning terrorism and religious extremism. The Islamic Society of North America had invited Bush to attend its annual convention. He sent Hughes, who was recently confirmed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Her tasks include improving the U.S. image in Muslims countries. "We need to foster a sense of common interest and common values among Americans and people of different...

Bush Administration Censors Hughes' Speech To Islamist Group September 7, 2005 - PipeLineNews.org - On Friday September 2, Karen Hughes, State Department Undersecretary for Public Relations addressed the Islamist group, ISNA [Islamic Society of North America] at their 42nd convention in Chicago, Illinois. In the wake of a firestorm of criticism over her appearance before the organization, the State Department is now refusing to release the text of the speech, on the grounds that it was not a public event. In advance of the address we were advised that the full text would be made available at the appropriate...

ROSEMONT, Ill. - Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's closest advisers, told a gathering of American Muslims on Friday that part of her new State Department job is to help amplify the voices of groups like theirs that are condemning terrorism and religious extremism. The Islamic Society of North America had invited Bush to attend its annual convention. He sent Hughes, who was recently confirmed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Her tasks include improving the U.S. image in Muslims countries. "We need to foster a sense of common interest and common values among Americans and people of different...

ROSEMONT, Ill. - An American Muslim group said Friday participants in its annual meeting will be asked to endorse a statement that calls terrorism "the epitome of injustice because it targets innocent people." The statement attempting to check the spread of extremism was released by the Islamic Society of North America, which also will send it to mosques around the country. ISNA had invited President Bush to attend its annual gathering, saying his attendance could mark a powerful show of support for mainstream Islam to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims. The administration representative is Bush confidante Karen Hughes, recently confirmed...

One of President Bush’s closest confidants, Karen Hughes, this weekend is scheduled to address the annual conference of an organization whose primary purpose is the propagation of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabist Islam—and which has praised suicide bombers, whose president has publicly denied that al Qaeda was behind 9/11, and whose web site to this day sells a book that lavishes praise on Osama bin Laden. Not only is Hughes publicly endorsing the Islamic Society of North America with her mere presence, but this is the first major public address in her new role spearheading outreach to the Muslim world. In the process,...

She would be well advised to seek the counsel of authentically peaceable, pro-American and anti-Islamist Muslim leaders Karen Hughes, confidant to George W. Bush and master political strategist, has recently returned from Texas to take on one of the most important and heretofore thankless tasks in Washington: Waging the "War of Ideas" component of the present global conflict against the "evil ideology" best described as Islamofascism. The starting point for Mrs. Hughes' vital work has to be an understanding that not all Muslims are adherents to this virulently intolerant ideology. Strategies for defeating the latter must, of necessity, involve reaching...

CHICAGO, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The Islamic Society of North America is urging President Bush to attend its convention in Chicago to help improve the U.S. image in the Muslim world. The group, which will hold its convention over the Labor Day weekend, says top Bush aide Karen Hughes is planning to attend. But its leaders say Bush's presence would show the world's 1.2 billion Muslims the United States truly respects and honors Islam, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. "If he really wants to make a difference, a real impact, he should come himself," ISNA Secretary-General Sayyid Syeed said.

PLAINFIELD, Ind. - A leading U.S. Muslim group called on President Bush Wednesday to show his support for mainstream Islam in this country and worldwide by meeting with the group next week in Chicago. Bush could make a powerful statement to the world's 1.2 billion Muslims by appearing at the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, just as he showed his support for adherents of the religion when he visited a Washington mosque a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Sayyid Syeed, the group's secretary general. ISNA, an umbrella organization of largely immigrant...

The Senate approved by voice vote yesterday the nomination of Karen Hughes, a former political adviser to President Bush, as the State Department's top public relations official. Hughes's main assignment as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy is to reverse anti-American sentiment around the world, and in particular in the Middle East. For years, Hughes has had a major voice in shaping Bush's domestic message. She is a former counselor to the president who left the White House in 2002 to move her family back to Texas. She has continued to advise the president from her home in Austin. Although...

Only two senators were in the room when Karen Hughes testified at her confirmation hearings. When it came time for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote on her nomination Tuesday, she was easily approved. And thus with no discussion and no debate, Hughes takes over the least noticed, least respected and possibly most important job in the State Department. Her formal title is undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. In plain English, her job is to fight anti-Americanism, promote American culture and above all to do intellectual battle with the ideology of radical Islam, a set...

WASHINGTON - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the nomination of Karen Hughes, a former political adviser to President Bush, as the State Department's top public relations official. The Senate is expected to complete the confirmation process this week before leaving for its August recess. Hughes' main assignment as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs is to reverse anti-American sentiment around the world. She said at a committee hearing last week that the challenge was "the urgent need to foster greater understanding, more respect and a sense of common ideals among Americans and people...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the nomination of Karen Hughes, a former political adviser to President Bush, as the State Department's top public relations official. The Senate is expected to complete the confirmation process this week before leaving for its August recess. Hughes' main assignment as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs is to reverse anti-American sentiment around the world. She said at a committee hearing last week that the challenge was "the urgent need to foster greater understanding, more respect and a sense of common ideals among Americans and people of different...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A scaled-back Senate Foreign Relations Committee showered praise Friday on Karen Hughes and put the former political adviser to President Bush on a fast track to confirmation as the State Department's top public relations official. Only two senators attended the hearing. In the absence of votes in Congress on Fridays, most lawmakers leave early for the weekend. The session barely delved into what Hughes will do about turning around anti-American sentiment in the world, part of her job if she is confirmed as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Hughes said her challenge...

WASHINGTON, 22 July 2005 — Middle Easterners prepare yourselves to be wooed, because the US State Department is about to launch a genuine charm offensive in your direction. The Bush Administration wants to improve its image abroad, especially among Arabs and Muslims, as they realize their status has gone south since the US invasion in Iraq. To help achieve their goal, they are bringing trusted aids back into service and appointing Arab Americans to key positions. Former White House counselor Karen Hughes will face confirmation hearings today by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become the new Undersecretary of State...

July 11 issue - Bill Clinton offered an exhaustive look at his life. George H.W. Bush authored a foreign-policy tome with his national-security adviser, and followed with a collection of his letters. Now George W. Bush is mulling his own book, according to one senior aide and one former administration official (both declined to be named about a subject that the White House has not discussed in public). Nothing is on paper, and President Bush has yet to decide who will physically write his book, but he has discussed his ideas with a handful of aides in casual conversations over...

Opening a new battle with the White House, Senate Democrats on Wednesday abruptly blocked the approval of President Bush's nominee for a top public diplomacy job, charging that the administration had injected partisan politics into the drive to improve the United States' image overseas. The nominee, Dina Powell, the White House personnel director, had been expected to win broad approval to become deputy under secretary of state for public diplomacy, to be the second-in-command to Karen P. Hughes in charge of repairing the United States' reputation, especially in the Muslim world. But in what was to have been a routine...

Some people seem to think that America's image abroad can be improved merely by changing the salesman. Unfortunately that's not the case. To paraphrase an over-used line: ``It's the policy, stupid.'' You would never know that from reading the commentary on the recent appointment of Karen Hughes as under secretary of state for public diplomacy. The pundits declared that Hughes faces a huge challenge, but she is the right person for the job because she is close to President Bush. They asserted because of that proximity to power, she will succeed where the bureaucracy and her two predecessors have failed....

| Dear Karen Hughes, On March 14, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced your nomination as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs. "The time has come to look anew at our institutions of public diplomacy," Rice said. Translation: You need to figure out how to make the rest of the world hate us less. Two previous holders of your job resigned, and the post has been vacant since last summer. Congratulations. You have the worst job in Washington. Fortunately for you, I am here to cheer you up. Read on, and prepare to be inspired. The state...

SYDNEY, March 28 - As the point person in the Bush administration's campaign to improve America's image in the world, Karen Hughes may face a more difficult challenge than she imagined and discover that she will have to travel far beyond the Middle East. A poll released Monday in Australia, long known for friendly relations with Americans, found that only 58 percent of the population had a positive view of the United States. That put the United States behind China (69 percent positive), and not even in the overall Top 10 countries, regions or groups that Australians respect. They have...

Selection of Karen Hughes as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy means President Bush believes two very strong-minded women who seldom wear hats can develop policies to discard the burkas of the Muslim world's women. Theirs is the daunting task of rebuilding the American reputation and building democracy in the Middle East. If anyone can accomplish this, these two women can. Mrs. Hughes and her popular new boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are likely to change many of this nation's policy procedures as they try to build a more favorable understanding of the U.S. at a critical but opportune...

Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's closest advisers, has been nominated to be undersecretary of state for public diplomacy - and she appears to be starting off on just the right note. Opinions of America overseas ``do not change quickly or easily,'' she said at her announcement. She must not think of ``branding'' the United States, the way British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been trying to ``rebrand'' his country as up-to-the-second trendy. The policies of great nations cannot be sold like beer or cars or toothpaste.

President Bush did the politically correct thing and appointed his longtime and trusted friend, Karen Hughes, to be the “undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.” It is reported that her job will be to improve our image in the Muslim world. What utter nonsense and monumental waste of time. The main question is this: Why do we need to improve our image to those who wish us dead? While Mrs. Hughes is having tea with leaders of Middle Eastern countries, men like Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s second in command, have the eyes and ears of those common men trained on...