Looking in at Iowa

Bush nominates University of Iowa grad for Assistant Secretary of State June 28, 2008

From White House news release:

Nominations Sent to the Senate

… Brian H. Hook, of Iowa, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (International Organization Affairs), vice Kristen Silverberg.

From Gazette archives (7/05/2004)

Bettendorf native takes White House post

BETTENDORF — A Bettendorf native will serve the White House in a position responsible for assisting in coordinating policy development for President Bush.

Brian Hook will become the special assistant to the president for policy in the Chief of Staff’s Office, the White House announced.

Hook served as counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice after he was an associate with the Hogan & Hartson, LLP, law firm in Washington, D.C.

He previously worked as the deputy legislative liaison for then Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and as an aide to U.S. Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa.

Hook earned a law degree from the University of Iowa [in 1999].

More information about Brian Hook is available from this U.S. State Department Web site:

Deputy Assistant Secretary
Bureau of International Organization Affairs
Term of Appointment: 03/10/2008 to present

Brian Hook was named Deputy Assistant Secretary in March 2008. Prior to this position, he served in New York as a senior advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 2006-2008. He was the ambassador’s lead negotiator on Security Council resolutions imposing multilateral sanctions on Iran, Sudan, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.

Mr. Hook was appointed by President Bush in 2004 as Special Assistant to the President for Policy, Office of the Chief of Staff, where he helped to develop and coordinate policy with the Homeland Security Council, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Council on Environmental Quality. Mr. Hook previously served as Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice from 2003-2004.

Hook was also featured on two pages of the University of Iowa College of Law’s Alumni Highlights:

“I went to law school at Iowa because I believe that in order to have a successful and positive effect on public policy, it is enormously helpful to have a law degree,” Hook says. “Also, my grandfather (Henry Hook, BA in journalism, 1933) was a great Hawkeye fan, so I had always wanted to attend The University of Iowa. I grew up attending Iowa football games, going as far back as I can remember.”

Hook still is a regular at Kinnick Stadium and Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but unlike his grandfather—a former publisher of the Quad-City Times and staunch Democrat—Brian is a Republican. …