In Washington? On Home Leave? A Passport Office Needs You.

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

M aura Harty, the State Department's designated flak-catcher for the public furor over three-month-plus passport issuance delays -- which are ruining many, many thousands of family vacations and educational and business trips -- is working overtime to reduce the backlog.

Seems the department, where Harty is assistant secretary for consular affairs, grossly underestimated the effect of a new rule requiring passports for people coming back by air from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Harty, grilled yesterday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is working to move money around to hire hundreds of workers to handle the avalanche of applications. But that won't be enough, she said in a recent cable to consular officers around the world.

"Our domestic passport agencies are all working flat out," she wrote. "We need your help."

So if you might be passing through Washington this summer while going to a new assignment, she wrote, or maybe going through "another city where we have a domestic passport agency, please consider spending a few days helping out."

There's a task force here "specifically for [Foreign Service] consular volunteers and we would welcome your participation."

"If you are taking home leave near" a passport office "and would be interested in adding a few days of passport work there to your summer . . . plans, we would be happy to arrange that as well." They'll even pay you a per diem -- but not travel costs.

So sign up "if you are interested in helping your colleagues," Harty said, "and in gaining new insight into the important world of domestic passport processing." Nothing like insight. And you can watch as some of the hundreds of thousands of rabid passport seekers try to jump the counter to rip your lungs out.

After that, you can work for the D.C. DMV.

Button-Down FDIC?

People who work at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. -- the folks who oversee the nation's financial institutions -- are often, and apparently most unfairly, stereotyped as boring pencil pushers.

They are, it turns out, a fun-loving crowd. And there's an internal investigation now into whether someone was having a bit too much fun at the division of information technology's annual golf outing May 22 at Penderbrook Golf Club in Fairfax County.

The FDIC is looking into reports that a senior official in the 274-employee division asked or offered to pay two women at the outing -- one of whom didn't work in that division -- to take off their blouses, which they did. The incident allegedly was seen by many of the people who attended, though it was unclear whether it occurred in the clubhouse or on one of the greens.

The FDIC's public affairs director, Andrew Gray, in response to our inquiry, issued an official statement.

"The individuals that participated in this off-site event used their own resources and took official leave to attend," Gray's statement said. "However, since the event was publicized internally by staff within the Division of Technology, the FDIC has taken strong action to thoroughly investigate and determine the facts behind the allegations. This investigation may be completed as early as this week, and full disciplinary action will be taken against individuals who are found to have behaved unprofessionally and inappropriately. We expect all FDIC employees to adhere to the highest standards of professionalism."

And, at a minimum, to keep their clothes on.

Unmentionables

Speaking of stripping down, it appears that former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, locked in at about 2 percent in the GOP presidential nomination race, might be willing to do some of that for a few points in the polls.

In a recent interview with the fashion magazine Marie Claire, Huckabee was asked whether he was "against miniskirts."

"If a person dresses provocatively," he said, "they're calling attention -- maybe not the most desirable kind -- to private parts of their body."

"What about a burqa?" he was asked.

"No, that hides everything," he said. "I think a person's hair, arms, shoulders, legs are an appropriate display of who they are." So a little leg is okay. "I want people to be attracted to me because they find me interesting, not because I'm wearing something . . . well, I doubt I own anything provocative."

"How about a miniskirt?"

"A thong," he said.

He of the Brown Bag

And speaking of fun-loving, let's have a hearty Loop welcome -- if he gets confirmed -- for former House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle, nominated yesterday to be director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Nussle was an obscure 31-year-old freshman Iowa Republican congressman until that wonderful moment in October 1991 when he spoke on the House floor with a brown paper bag over his head to protest what he called the "shameful" behavior of members involved in the House banking scandal. Those were the great old days when members, most of them Democrats, had a tendency to bounce checks at the House bank.

New Pentagon Talker

A new flack at the Pentagon: ABC newsman Geoff Morrell, who covered the White House in the network's Washington bureau, started his new job yesterday at the Pentagon as spokesman. He's been doing the rounds, getting ready for his first briefing.