MSNBC: "After 6 months on job, Rice seen in firm control at State Dept"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Using ‘velvet’ touch, Rice takes control at State
Now six months on the job, secretary summons ‘practical idealism’

By Robin Wright and Glenn Kessler
The Washington Post
Updated: 2:51 a.m. ET July 31, 2005

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8769906/

WASHINGTON - Three weeks after taking office, Condoleezza Rice hosted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and their Japanese counterparts at the State Department. When Rumsfeld began to speak, Rice gently cut him off. The message was clear: I'll take the lead, Don. Both Japanese and U.S. officials noted the decisive nudge.

Now six months on the job, Rice has clearly wrested control of U.S. foreign policy. The once heavy-handed Defense Department still weighs in, but Rice wins most battles -- in strong contrast to her predecessor, Colin L. Powell. White House staff is consulted, but Rice designed the distinctive framework for the administration's second-term foreign policy.

In short order, she has demonstrated a willingness to bend on tactics to accommodate the concerns of allies without ceding on broad principles, what she calls "practical idealism." She also conducts a more aggressive personal diplomacy, breaking State Department records for foreign travel and setting up diplomatic tag teams with top staff on urgent issues.

U.S. foreign policy has always had "a streak of idealism, which means that we care about values, we care about principle," Rice said in an interview last week. "The responsibility, then, of all of us is to take policies that are rooted in those values and make them work on a day-to-day basis so that you're always moving forward toward a goal."

[BlueEyedSon]

1. :puke:

:puke:

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. Yes, Condi owes her success to "The Mel Torme Method"...

:evilgrin:

[thebigidea]

3. i suppose they can't point out a single one of these "battles" she won

or any single issue where rice actually differs from the pentagon line.

[Missy M]

4. This is the biggest bunch of PR crap I have read in a long time...

straight from the White House. About the only issue I heard about with Rice is she had the Sudanese government apologize for their police roughing up some reporters traveling with her. Wow, earth shattering, what a diplomatic coup. She cares about values and principle so her idea of what that is seems to differ from the rest of the world.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. They didn't ask the Russians, Chinese, Japanese or Germans

what they thought of her.
If you read their local press, it ain't pretty.
They are being as polite as they could be, but overall, they view her as insignificant, not very bright, and clueless about geopolitics.

The is true spin, for domestic consumption only.
(HEY LOOK! she stood up to Rummie! ! ! Yippee!)
What a load of crap.

Der Spiegel did an "outing" on her last month. It described her to a tee, and it was extremely brutal, without insults, just factual. Pravda, despite its USSR history, still provides the best insight into the Russian mindset. Ask them how they describe Ms. Leather.
The Guardian also ran a piece about how ineffectual and clueless she was, but their final analysis suggested that this was par for the couse, given who sat in the White House. I wish I could find these articles. Some are in english, several are not.