As it's unlikely you saw this press release from the White House yesterday, perhaps you missed the announcement that President Bush has nominated two Texans (one of whom is very local) for some gigs currently open in his administration. Fine -- feel free to insert Alberto Gonzales joke here. There, feel better?
First off, Bush asked his old pal Nancy Brinker to act as Chief of Protocol at the Department of State -- a job that entails literally rolling out the red carpet for visiting heads of state and babysitting foreign leaders whilst they're in the U.S. on official business. (Seems like a lot of busywork to me.) Brinker would also get the title of ambassasor during her tenure, should the Senate confirm her-- and it will, as the founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation was previously Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Hungary. Love those full titles.
And Bush also tapped Steven H. Murdock as his new Director of the Census at the Department of Commerce. Murdock's currently Texas' state demographer and author of summertime reading-list favorite Demographics: A Guide to Methods and Data Sources for Media, Business, and Government. --Robert Wilonsky
