Condi Gets Her Shot
She argued the hard-liners' case on Iraq. But the next Secretary of State remains an ideological puzzle

In one of the photo albums in her West Wing office, Condoleezza Rice keeps a picture of herself and President George W. Bush in a rowboat on a pond at the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Bush is standing at one end, peering over the edge at the bass in his stocked fishing hole. Rice is sitting at the other end, visibly uncomfortable. She may love talking sports with the President, but she's no fan of the water. "She can swim, but she doesn't like it," says a friend. "She and the outdoors are only on distant acquaintance."

It is a measure of Rice's success at building their relationship that Bush is comfortable testing her, even during the off-hours. She started out as his tutor on foreign affairs when he was still Governor of Texas. Now that Bush has nominated Rice to replace Colin Powell as his Secretary of State, the question is where she stands on the foreign policy fights of the day. Despite four years as National Security Advisor, Rice has shown few fixed ideological beliefs.

On several issues, Rice has changed positions dramatically, shifting from a hard-nosed student of realpolitik to a true believer in Bush's vision of spreading democracy. She originally rebuffed attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to build relations with the Administration but then accepted him as an ally after Bush famously said he had looked into Putin's soul. When King Abdullah of Jordan first proposed in the summer of 2002 that Bush launch a road map to peace for the Arab-Israeli conflict, Rice tried to block it but later became a fervent backer. In 2000 she scorned the use of U.S. troops for nation building, but has undertaken monumental military reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Critics say that more often than not she simply has settled into orbit around the real power centers of U.S. foreign policy: Vice President Dick Cheney and his ally Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "She's getting this job because she's not a threat," says retired Lieut. General William Odom of the conservative Hudson Institute. When Rice tried to impose order on prewar planning, Rumsfeld ignored her. Vice President Cheney established a broad and powerful shadow National Security Council early in the Administration and used his close relationship with Bush to drive White House decision making.

Few Democrats want to be on the record voting against the first black woman named Secretary of State. Still, Rice will undoubtedly be grilled about her record and management. She faced criticism for placing counterterrorism low on her list of priorities in the nine months before 9/11. And she shares the blame both for letting the now discredited allegations that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa get into Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech and for hyping the significance of high-strength aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy abroad. Despite these concerns, however, Rice is virtually certain to be confirmed by the Senate. —from TIME, November 29, 2004

Cabinet Shuffle Within a month of Bush's re-election, nine members of his Cabinet announced their resignations. In addition to Colin Powell, they include: Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security; John Ashcroft, Attorney General; Rod Paige, Education Secretary; Donald L. Evans, Commerce Secretary; Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Ann Veneman, Agriculture Secretary; Spencer Abraham, Energy Secretary; and Anthony Principi, Veterans Affairs Secretary.

Questions

1. Whom will Rice replace as Secretary of State?

2. On what issues has Rice changed her position?