Yesterday’s WaPo (no link – go find it yourself.) announced that the State Department is drastically revising its entrance process for acquiring new Foreign Service Officers. The old system, which produced skilled, talented, well-rounded professionals is being replaced. The alleged reason is to “improve our ability to find the best . . . compete more effectively with the private sector to attract the best, and . . . make our process faster in hiring the best," according to a draft cable to employees.”

Under the old regime, which coincidentally is approximately the same system as that used by Great Britain, candidates were judged upon their educational and personal achievements in a proven attempt to obtain the very finest minds possible.

Once every year, nearly 20,000 diplomatic hopefuls walk into a meeting room somewhere in the United States or abroad; they are handed a blue essay book and a shot at a Foreign Service career. Over half a day, these applicants are tested on their knowledge of such topics as democratic philosophy, international law, world history and geography, along with math and English skills. The State Department warns that the only way to prepare is to "read widely," offering a study list of hundreds of texts.

Those who make the cut endure a half-day grilling by Foreign Service officers, meant to test qualities such as judgment and management skills. Each year, only a few hundred clear both hurdles and embark on a career abroad.

It should be noted that over the last six years the State Department professionals have been right every time on all the issues the Bu$h malAdministration engaged in: WMDs, Iraq, Iran, the Palestinian issue, etc, etc, etc. Just as George Bu$h’s record is one of continuous ongoing failures, piling one on top of the other, State has called the case each time.

The new program, which has been given the snazzy, ultra-hip name “Total Candidate” will greatly lower the standards by which we select our future Foreign Service Officers. Now, that is certainly a surprise. I am sure it is also surprising to learn that our alleged Russian expert, Mr Bu$h’s office wife Condoleeza Rice has endorsed the new system.

The proposed Total Candidate approach, born of a study by consultants McKinsey and Co., envisions a shorter, automated written test, offered several times a year at a commercial testing facility. It would be weighed along with a "structured" resume, submitted online, that State Department examiners would use to gauge work experience and references, along with less traditional qualities of leadership and people skills. The oral exam would remain the final test for entry.

"Instead of just looking at how well somebody does on the test, there's an opportunity to look at all these factors," said the person involved in the plan. "It may be that we look at resumes first and then at test scores. Both factors are going to be important."

The new approach would cut the hiring process roughly in half, to about six months, to better compete with companies that can offer promising candidates a job on the spot. The number of applicants is expected to decline, but to attract a greater range of experience and skills.

McKinsey acknowledged that the current hiring process is a proven predictor of candidate success. And for Foreign Service officers, the written test is a rite of passage, and source of pride.

Since the current system is a “proven predictor of candidate success” it obviously must be changed so that our State Department can be as inept, bumbling, and overrun with political operatives as our Defense Department

So, first we’ll look at a candidate’s resume, and then give him a machine graded (multiple choice) test. If your resume shows membership and association with the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, American Petroleum Institute, or Young Republicans, you’re good to go.

"The sense that everybody passed this exam is important," said Richard C. Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who brokered the Dayton peace accords, which ended the Bosnian war in 1995. Holbrooke entered the Foreign Service fresh out of Brown University, in 1962.

Holbrooke recalled that in addressing his Foreign Service class, then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk "made a big point of telling us that we had come in on our merit, and neither he nor anyone else could influence the process."

Set against that backdrop, "this looks like a lowering of the standards for entry . . . at a time when their focus ought to be on training diplomats for the real challenges of the 21st century," Holbrooke said.

Coming in on your own merit is soooo 20th century. Now it’s who you know and not what you know.

It’s good to change the system. After all, that’s how the Coalition Provisional Authority was staffed and look at its record of sterling service and outstanding success.