You Messed Up. Now Here's Your Promotion.

Asked if he knew at the time about the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison, Ashcroft said the Justice Department "does not run prisons in foreign lands," but he apologized for the abuse. "I'm sorry about Abu Ghraib," he said. "It was hurting the United States."

Well, yeah, not to mention the inmates. Asked about holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Ashcroft said: "Yes, it's a good place for them." Great snorkeling, windsurfing, blistering heat to remind them of home . . .

A Little Close to Home?

Bad enough that Mark W. Everson, the former Internal Revenue Service commissioner and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, was so unceremoniously canned by the American Red Cross for having a "personal relationship with a subordinate employee."

Everson, who was deputy commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization Services in the Reagan administration, had been on the job for only six months. Best we can tell, he set the world indoor record for being hired, hooking up and getting fired. Worse, his wife, Nanette, was the Bush White House's top ethics officer early in the administration before becoming general counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and, most recently, returning to the private sector.

Worst of all, in 2006, LawyerRoster.com listed her "Main Area of Concentration" as "Divorce."

Oh, dear.

In Relentless Pursuit of Facts

Keeping up with the Engel Codel. Rep. Eliot Engel's hardy band of 10 fact-seekers was in Brasilia yesterday, meeting with lawmakers, getting ready for an arduous float up the Amazon today as their journey winds up. (They've already been to Rio and Iguazu Falls.) The other members of the delegation led by Engel (D-N.Y.) are, according to a Brazilian parliament list forwarded by reporter Jo¿o Carlos Teixeira to our colleague Mike Shepard: Reps. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.), Randy Kuhl (R-N.Y.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) and John Salazar (D-Colo.). Though he's not on the official list, the office of Rep. Clifford Stearns (R-Fla.) says he's there, too.

So if you haven't seen those folks in their districts this week, that's because they're out working for you.

That core group, along with spouses, a military escort and a couple folks from the State Department, also boasts five House aides: Kay King, director of the office of interparliamentary affairs; Robyn Wapner, Foreign Affairs Committee GOP aide; Foreign Affairs subcommittee staff director Jason Steinbaum, and staff members Eric Jacobstein and Erin E. Diamond.

Do Your Part for Pakistan

Are you an architect or engineer? Worried about losing work if we slip into recession? Think international. Think Pakistan.

That nuclear-armed country -- beset by jihadists, facing rebellion in the northwest provinces, confronting nuclear India over Kashmir, having had a democratically elected leader for only less than half of its 60 years as an independent nation -- is chronically unstable. These days, even the lawyers are rioting in the streets.

Washington is hunting hard for ways to shore up the country and improve the Pakistanis' view of the United States and democracy. A recent Pew poll found only 48 percent of Pakistanis think democracy can work.

Here's where you can help. The Agency for International Development is proposing a project vital to the country's future: the new Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services building. This building, which you will design -- offers must be submitted by Jan. 4 -- will house the Pakistan Legislative Strengthening Program. We're told this will "address the needs of members of Parliament and their staff to perform essential legislative processes such as budgeting, operation of committees, and rules of parliamentary process."

Of course! Kind of their very own Congressional Research Service. That's the ticket! Wait till the tribes in Waziristan find out about this!