Martyr Complex

Undersecretary of State Karen P. Hughes 's first foray to make friends in Muslim countries started this week with a stop to see Mohammad Sayed Tantawi , a Sunni spiritual leader of the al-Azhar University, who Hughes reportedly hailed as a respected moderate voice.

"I had a wonderful meeting with him," she told reporters in Egypt. "I thanked him because Al-Azhar under his leadership was among the first . . . religious institutions in the world to condemn the September 11 attacks." Tantawi also has said normalization of ties with Israel was theologically acceptable.

In interviews in August on U.S.-funded Alhurra television and on a Lebanese TV station, Tantawi also condemned suicide attacks, such as "when someone blows himself up in a market, a bus, a car with children, women, and peaceful people, who don't participate in wars."

But suicide bombers against U.S. troops? That appears to be a different matter. "I say that a person who blows himself up among an enemy who came to kill me," Tantawi explained, "and I have no way of defending myself except for blowing myself up amongst this enemy who came to kill me and my countrymen, or to attack what is sacred -- in such a case, whoever blows himself up is a martyr."

Now that's a moderate.

Oh, the Chairman Just Said You're a Liar

Once again, another Loop plea: Please, please, be very careful when using the SEND key. Here's a "Dear Colleague" e-mail from House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.). The e-mail, sent by committee aide Jennifer Zuccarelli at 1:42 p.m yesterday to all House members, was about the costs of his bill to "reform" -- enviros say "gut" -- the Endangered Species Act.

The headline? "Don't Buy the Miller/Boehlert LIE."

My, my. Calling Rep. George Miller , a California Democrat, a liar, is one thing. But fellow Republican Sherwood L. Boehlert (N.Y.)?

Fifty-three minutes later an "ERROR and APOLOGY" e-mail came in from Brian J. Kennedy , the committee's communications director, saying the first e-mail was "inadvertently sent" to the whole list -- presumably instead of to a more select group -- and "most certainly should NOT have contained such an inappropriate term in the title. Please accept the apologies" of the communications staff and "disregard the message."

Kennedy was busy yesterday apologizing to those most offended.

A New Job for a Clinton Aide

Former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine B. Bowles , who lost campaigns in 2002 and 2004 to become a U.S. senator from North Carolina, is expected to become the next president of the University of North Carolina system, university officials told the Associated Press yesterday.

A search committee recommended Bowles, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus and wealthy investment banker, and the UNC board of governors is expected to endorse him when it meets Monday. Bowles's yearly salary would be $425,000, although officials said he intends to donate $125,000 a year to needy students. Still, he would net nearly twice the salaries of the two Republicans who defeated him: Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr .