Selling U.S. Policy: Big Names for a Big Job

These are difficult times for America's image abroad. And the folks at the State Department's public diplomacy operation, especially in the Bureau of International Information Programs, are working overtime to meet their mandate to "deliver America's message to the world, counteracting negative preconceptions."

The "mission statement" on the 370-member IIP's Web site says it is to "Inform, engage, and influence international audiences about U.S. policy and society to advance America's interests."

But that's not easy. The White House, we hear, looked hard a while back to find some celebrity types to promote the president's vision for Iraq, but came up empty. IIP, run by Alexander C. Feldman , has a group trying to enlist some "big name" speakers, people with instant credibility, for the cause, according to an internal March 20 e-mail sent by an IIP aide.

The Democracy Dialogues group had drawn up a list of people they'd like to get, such as former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite , for example, to talk about a free press and well-known scholars to talk about other issues. Feldman, the e-mail said, "professed himself less than entirely satisfied with the list of prospective big name speakers . . . which he thought was 'uneven' " and lacking in "truly big names," especially "international figures."

"He threw out some suggestions of his own, which I pass along to give you all an idea of the terms in which Alex is thinking about this," the e-mail said. For women's rights, maybe Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg . For "judicial independence," maybe Justices Anthony Kennedy or Stephen G. Breyer , or maybe Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

But, the e-mail writer continues, "please be thinking about truly well-known international counterparts, e.g., Richard J. Goldstone , the former chief prosecutor of the International Tribunal for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia -- people of that kind of stature" who would be known not just "in certain countries or regions."

So for "free and fair elections," we're told Feldman suggested former South African president Nelson Mandela or former president of Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel . They'd certainly be willing to help advance America's interests.

For "freedom of worship: The Dali Lama [and] The Pope ."

Of course! Surely they'd at least be willing to do a Web chat for us? Hmm . . . Posting with the Pope. Kinda catchy?

The Few, the Proud, the Cabinet Holdovers

Yesterday's announcement that Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. is leaving sparked much chatter about other top-level departures at the White House. At the Cabinet level, though, don't expect major change.

But President Bush 's Cabinet has only three of the original 15 statutory chiefs from 2001: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld , Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta . (A replacement for Treasury Secretary John W. Snow , not of the Class of 2001 anyway, has long been expected.)

Of the trio, Mineta -- a close friend of Card's back from the days when Card was secretary of transportation and Mineta chaired the House Transportation Committee -- has long been talked about as a likely departee before 2008. Unclear if Chao might depart at the traditional last departure window -- the midterm elections in November. If those two go, that would leave Rumsfeld, who has shown no inclination to leave.

President Bill Clinton's Cabinet had several bitter-enders, including Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt , Education Secretary Richard W. Riley , Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala and Attorney General Janet Reno .

At State, the Vacancy Sign Stays Lit

Still looking . . . Anyone who wants to be assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, please contact Robert Joseph , undersecretary for arms control and international security, ASAP with your bona fides.

Stephen Rademaker has been "acting" in the job since September, but the search has gone on. Names that have come and gone include Mark Esper , a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.); Marshall Billingslea , who's at NATO; and Susan Koch , a top adviser to Joseph. No signs any of them will be nominated any time soon. We hear Joseph has been telling people, even people he doesn't know, that he's not happy. Meanwhile, the operation bleeds talent as it merges arms control and nonproliferation bureaus into a new office called International Security and Nonproliferation.