Disbelieving laughter was the early reaction when a senior official told hundreds of junior U.S. diplomats gathered for an emergency State Department meeting yesterday that their country needed them to spend the summer in New Orleans and Portsmouth, N.H. Smiles quickly faded as Patrick Kennedy, the department’s director of management policy, assured them he was serious. They were all being placed on passport duty, detailed to help reduce a half-million backlog in issuing travel documents that has left many Americans with ruined overseas travel plans this summer, he told them. New passport regulations this year have led to an overwhelming demand for passports, extending the normal six-week turnaround time to many months. ‘We are mobilizing the State Department’ to fulfill a responsibility it has held since 1789, Kennedy said. More specifically, the State Department is mobilizing about 300 junior officials without the clout to say no. They include all the members of the prestigious Presidential Management Fellows program, the department’s main entry portal for top-flight recruits with graduate degrees and leadership potential. Participation in the two-year program almost guarantees a diplomatic career. New hires in a separate career-entry program were also informed that they have been dragooned […]