[Popman]

It would be highly unusual if the Secretary of State refused to confer with the Chairman and other members of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Thanks for that useful insight............ < / sar >

Miss Rice also consults regularly with her supporters on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Maybe, I was reading more into the article then was there, but in context it seemed like they implied there was a special relationship with Chairman Richard Lugar and Sen. Chuck Hagel.

If Condi is living in a national security bubble with these two guys and not getting input elswhere, I am concerned

[Miss Marple]

Let me try to decipher this. Lugar and Hagel support Rice, for whatever reason. (Lugar is my senator, and I personally think he is getting dotty, but I digress.) They have positions on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Rice recularly confers with them. That is true.

However, if Dennis Kucinich were the head of the committee, she would STILL regularly confer with him, even though he is a nut-ball. IT IS HER JOB TO CONFER WITH WHOEVER HOLDS THAT POSITION.