Breakfast of DeLay Champions

So first she blew off the ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in July in Laos, an event that every secretary of state since George P. Schultz has attended. Then she took a pass on the Australian-U.S. ministerial meeting last month in Adelaide.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld went to that one, but not Rice, though she was in the area, in China, with President Bush .

And now she's headed off to Europe but skipping the ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a human rights organization that has played a key role in the New Europe and the Balkans. This even though she's going to be within an hour or so by air of the meeting in Slovenia when she flies from Berlin to Romania.

Worse yet, those guys don't even rate Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick , who covered for Rice at the first two gatherings. The OSCE gets Undersecretary R. Nicholas Burns , who, an announcement said, will "deliver a message of strong U.S. support for the OSCE."

Really, really strong support.

Easy Diplomacy

Speaking of travels, public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes is now off to Central America with several business executives to "encourage private-sector assistance" for hurricane relief in the area.

Since taking the job in August, she has been to a half-dozen Muslim countries, including one trip to Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia and other visits to Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.

This trip, to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, promises not to be a hard sell. If there's any region in the world outside maybe Eastern Europe where people like us, it's Central America. A recent poll showed between 70 and 87 percent have a favorable view of the United States, with Honduras, Panama and El Salvador leading the way.

Score One for Alito

The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to make certain that Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. knows what he's getting into. The second question on the panel's required questionnaire is: "State the position for which you have been nominated." "Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States" Alito guessed. So far so good. (He has already gotten further than White House counsel Harriet Miers did.)