By Al Kamen

Wednesday, September 17, 2003; Page A25

State Department types were taken aback last week to find that a longtime diplomatic photo exhibit along a busy corridor to the cafeteria had been taken down. The two dozen mostly grainy black and white shots were a historic progression of great diplomatic moments, sources recalled.

There was an original political cartoon from the Jefferson era showing Britain and France pick-pocketing the Americans; there were pictures of negotiations with Indian tribes over land; President Woodrow Wilson at Versailles; former secretary of state Elihu Root somewhere; Roosevelt and Churchill signing the Atlantic Charter; former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze in cowboy boots at Jackson Hole; a splendid shot of the old State Department building; and a photo of President Ronald Reagan at a meeting with a very young Colin L. Powell seated behind him.

Then they were gone. And what was put up in their place? What else? A George W. Bush family album montage of 21 large photos of the president as diplomat. He's speaking at the United Nations and meeting with foreign leaders. There are several shots of Bush with first lady Laura Bush -- exiting a plane, touring the Forum in Rome and visiting Japan. (There's one of just Laura Bush and Jordan's Queen Noor at a U.N. conference.) There's one of Bush meeting in happier days with his very good friend Jacques Chirac, president of France, and another with his even better friend, Gerhard Schroeder, chancellor of Germany. There's a fine shot of him yucking it up in Beijing with former Chicom boss Jiang Zemin, aka the Robin Williams of the Middle Kingdom.

The new exhibit -- actually it was on a lesser-traveled corridor on the first floor for several months -- was sent over from the White House at the request of State's administration folks. It's part of an effort to "spruce up the building . . . liven up the halls," one official said. There are other similar photos on other floors, we were told. The old photos are to be re-hung in that other corridor once it's painted.

But such a stunning collection of Bush photos and only a couple of Secretary of State Powell -- both with Bush? "Well, the president is our boss," the official observed.

Quite true. But no picture of Bush swimming in the Potomac?

Our personal favorite is a shot of the president looking out from the official limo in Beijing. The ID placard, done at the State Department, says he's in Tienemen Square.

No. No tiene men. No tiene women either. That would be Tiananmen Square.

Back in January 2002, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., then director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, was predicting that the budget deficit could mushroom to $100 billion. He said the good news was that a $100 billion deficit would be only about 1 percent of the gross domestic product, compared with the 3 percent to 5 percent budget deficits the federal government ran during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s.

And here's Vice President Cheney talking Sunday to Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," just 20 months later about the $500 billion deficit we're now facing.

"The deficit that we're running today, after we get the approval of the $87 billion, will still be less . . . than it was back in the '80s or the deficits we ran in the '90s. We're still about 4.7 percent of our total GDP. So the notion that the United States can't afford this or that we shouldn't do it is, I think, seriously flawed."

For the record, that would be tied for the fifth-highest deficit in the past 50-plus years. The highest four as a percentage of GDP, during the Reagan administration, were 6.1 percent, 5.2 percent, 5.1 percent and 4.9 percent.

"Are You Missing a Pair of Shoes?" That's what House chief administrative officer James M. Eagen III wants to know. "We recently changed vendors for shoe shine and repair services," he wrote in a letter last week to all members and staff. "However, a significant number of repaired shoes" and other items "from the previous vendor . . . have never been picked up," he said.

So hustle on down to the Cannon basement rotunda by Oct. 31 and take a look at some fine men's combat boots, cowboy boots, lots of loafers and dress shoes, women's boots, clogs, flats, high heels, sandals and loafers, purses, belts and even a gym bag.

You need to bring a receipt or proof of ownership, but there are no tickets available for some items. So maybe if the shoe fits you can wear it?