With little fanfare and only two senators even bothering to show up at her confirmation hearings, Bush political advisor Karen Hughes [3] has been confirmed as U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs - the state department's top public relations job. One of the questions raised during the hearings (but avoided by Hughes [4]) had to do with her possible role in the Valerie Plame [5] affair. During the buildup to war in Iraq, Hughes was part of the White House Iraq Group [6], which coordinated strategy for selling the war to the American people. She now inherits the job previously held by Charlotte Beers [7], in which she is responsible for improving the way the U.S. is perceived in other countries, including the Muslim and Arab world.