Slate asks just what the hell Karen Hughes though she was doing in the middle east late last month.

Karen Hughes, Stay Home! – What on earth is she doing in the Middle East? By Fred Kaplan
Let’s say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans’ image of Islam. It’s doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented “Good morning.” Yet this would be the clueless counterpart to Karen Hughes, with her lame attempts at bonding (“I’m a working mom”) and her tin-eared assurances that President Bush is a man of God (you can almost hear the Muslim women thinking, “Yes, we know, that’s why he’s relaunched the Crusades”).

It is stunning just how arrogant and out of their depth this administartion is. How else to explain yet another colossal misfire?