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Goodbye, Karen Hughes

By Michelle Malkin  •  October 31, 2007 12:04 PM

1hughes.jpg

Reuters reports: “The State Department’s public diplomacy chief and image guru, Karen Hughes, has decided to resign, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.” More here.

Given her abject dhimmi tendencies, this is a good thing. DLTDHYOTWO.

Via USA Today, self-delusion reigns at Foggy Bottom:

“She’s made it possible for every ambassador around the world to feel comfortable going out and talking about America’s message, pressing the public diplomacy case,” Condoleezza Rice tells reporters.

Hughes, a former TV reporter, says she’s proud of her accomplishments. “I feel that I’ve done what Secretary Rice and President Bush asked me to do, by transforming public diplomacy and making it a national security priority central to everything we do in government, while also engaging the private sector more extensively than ever before,” she says.

***
Flashback via Robert Spencer:

Well, this explains a great deal. State Department diplomat extraordinaire Karen Hughes has been studying Islam via the notorious Saudi-funded dhimmi “scholar” and Islamic apologist John Esposito and Reza Aslan, the wunderkind who assures us that Muhammad was the ideal Rotarian and the jihad against the West is just a myth.

Flashback via Diana West:

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. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope”), Hughes “turned to an aide and indicated she was not sure of the answer. The aide whispered back, and Hughes replied, ‘We are respectful of Egypt’s laws.’”

I guess that means no, but the non-denial denial is open to interpretation. Maybe she wanted to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood, but couldn’t. Or maybe she didn’t want to say something as harshly non-conversational as “no” because the popular MB might be elected one of these days. Or maybe she just didn’t know.

But worse than not knowing what to say is saying too much. Or saying the wrong thing. Or even saying anything at all. Hughes committed all of the above, a faux-pas trifecta, after meeting with Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, the academic center of Sunni Islam. It was a “wonderful meeting,” she explained, because the two of them were able to talk “about the common language of the heart.”

Oh, brother. Is this an Under Secretary of State or a sorority sister? Hughes burbled on about the leadership of Al-Azhar “in speaking out against extremism, against terrorism, (which) is not in keeping with the tenets of Islam” — natch. The sheikh “made the point that all divine religions are built on a spirit of love,” she said, “and (that) it is important that all of us work together to fight extremism, to fight terrorism.”

What a guy. Hearing Hughes talk about Sheikh Tantawi, you could almost forget what he said in 2002, as translated from a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), when he called on Palestinian Muslims to “intensify the martyrdom operations against the Zionist enemy” — men, women and children — and described the barbarous slaughter as “the highest form of Jihad operations” and “a legitimate act according to (Islamic) law.” Maybe that’s the “spirit of love” Hughes was gushing about.

Flashback via Militant Islam Monitor: White House rep Karen Hughes: I found “new allies” at radical Islamist ISNA convention ” to help educate America” about Muslims

Posted in: Public Officials

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Comments

  1. #1
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:09 pm, ajmontana said:

    You forgot something.
    DLTDHYOTWO.

  2. #2
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:10 pm, Michelle Malkin said:

    Just about to add it.

  3. #3
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:10 pm, puhiawa said:

    She wore the hijab before Laura

  4. #4
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:10 pm, 30 pcs of silver said:

    How does someone with her background end up with “dhimmi tendencies…”(?) I guess anything is possible.

    Oh well, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

  5. #5
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:11 pm, 30 pcs of silver said:

    Hey, #1, great minds…

  6. #6
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:16 pm, Jaded said:

    It appears that there is something about being in public office for to long that makes you an idiot…..dhimmi indeed.

  7. #7
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:27 pm, On-my-soap-box said:

    Can’t say I’ll miss her. Then again, I never threw anything at her.

    NIIICCE AJ!

  8. #8
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:44 pm, LC said:

    Progress.

  9. #9
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:58 pm, publiuswarmac9999 said:

    It would be nice if the people running around trying to understand Islam would make a similar attempt to understand Christianity. It just might make for a better world.

  10. #10
    On October 31st, 2007 at 12:59 pm, granite said:

    #6 Jaded:

    “It appears that there is something about being in public office for to long that makes you an idiot…..dhimmi indeed.”

    Yep.

    I believe the Brits used to refer to it as “going native”.

  11. #11
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:01 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    Hughes, a former TV reporter, says she’s proud of her accomplishments.

    Former TV reporter. That’s all I need to know - everything else falls into focus.

  12. #12
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:29 pm, uhangtight said:

    aloha guy, my sentiments exactly!! when i read that! I thought, no wonder she’s an idiot!

    LOL

  13. #13
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:29 pm, markie13 said:

    OK, I feel like I missed the secret club meeting where they went over vocabulary…
    What the heck does DLTDHYOTWO mean??

  14. #14
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:35 pm, Tennessee Dave said:

    White House rep Karen Hughes: I found “new allies” at radical Islamist ISNA convention ” to help educate America” about Muslims

    Bombing - Beiruit
    Bombing - World Trade Center 1993
    Bombing - Khobar Towers
    Bombing - USS Cole
    Bombing - World Trade Center 2001
    ….and many others.
    I think I know all I need to know.

  15. #15
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:46 pm, Bob1234 said:

    For the last 12 years or so, Bush has relied on this woman as a trusted confidante and advisor. Looking back, that should have been a warning sign to all of us, I suppose.

  16. #16
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pm, Ron Rockstar said:

    #13 Markie13, read the last line of #4 from 30 pcs of silver. That should answer your question.

  17. #17
    On October 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pm, conservativesRus said:

    Actually - when the President said he was a compassionate conservative we should have known. Conservatism is compassionate all by itself. It’s far more compassionate teaching somebody to fish than giving them the fish. It’s compassionate failing a child in 2nd grade rather than let them be failures their whole life. It’s compassionate to “society” to take criminals off the street. And I could go on.

  18. #18
    On October 31st, 2007 at 2:04 pm, markie13 said:

    Thanks Ron.

  19. #19
    On October 31st, 2007 at 2:50 pm, Alphonse said:

    Of all things Bush, nothing has tickled my funny bone more than sending Karen Hughes out as goodwill ambassador to win the hearts of Arabs and Moslems by explaining Bush’s policies to them.

  20. #20
    On October 31st, 2007 at 2:52 pm, MrVIBEMAN said:

    Markie13, it means:

    Don’t
    Let
    The
    Door
    Hit
    You
    On
    The
    Way
    Out.

  21. #21
    On October 31st, 2007 at 4:41 pm, Gabe said:

    “Moderate” Karen Hughes=originator of the “New Tone” appeasement of the liberal media and Congressmen in order to boost President Bush’s popularity instead of using the bully pulpit.

    Boy that worked! Ditto for her “win Muslim hearts and minds by appeasement” tour.

  22. #22
    On October 31st, 2007 at 6:23 pm, Marshall Russ said:

    Blah Blah Blah. Blah Blah Blah. Sometimes the words fail ya. Makes your hair hurt.

  23. #23
    On October 31st, 2007 at 6:57 pm, mnmike said:

    She wore a hijab before hijab was cool?

  24. #24
    On October 31st, 2007 at 11:03 pm, Bhishma said:

    Jaren Hughes was Bush’s Islamic appeasement gal.

  25. #25
    On October 31st, 2007 at 11:54 pm, DaveC said:

    why not NLTDHYOYAOTWO

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