State Dept. Spokesman Rubin Leaving Job, Moving to London

After 7 1/2 years as spokesman for Madeleine Albright at the United Nations and the State Department, James P. Rubin is packing up today and moving to London, where he will live with his wife, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, and their newborn son, Darius John Rubin.

Rubin has excoriated Balkan dictators, reprimanded Russian leaders and heaped abuse on the Clinton administration’s favorite villain, terrorist Osama bin Laden.

He has used his office as a bully pulpit, and he makes no apologies for it.

“This podium has become part of foreign policy,” Rubin told new foreign service officers last week. Instead of low-level U.S. embassy officials handing notes to low-level foreign officials, the State Department could transmit its views through him. “The people you’re dealing with may see it on TV before you can even set up a meeting,” he said. Department officials say Albright rarely made a decision without checking with Rubin.