Bush taps aide Hughes for public diplomacy

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday named former White House adviser Karen Hughes to head public diplomacy at the State Department.

"I am pleased to announce that President Bush intends to nominate Karen P. Hughes as the State Department's new under secretary for public diplomacy," she said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Hughes will have the rank of ambassador and will undertake a broad review and restructuring of U.S. public diplomatic efforts.

"When it comes to our public diplomacy, we simply must do better," Rice said.

Hughes thanked Rice and Bush and said if confirmed, she looked forward to her new job.

"America's public diplomacy should be as much about listening and understanding as it is about speaking," Hughes said.

Hughes, viewed once as the most powerful woman ever to work in the White House, resigned as counselor to the president in 2002 citing family reasons, but continued to advise him on communications strategies. A former television reporter and executive director of the Texas Republican Party, she is often described as Bush's alter ego and first worked with him in his first run for governor of Texas in 1994.