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Editor's note: the following interview with Secretary of State Rice took place in her office at the State Department last Thursday, April 19. It's been slightly edited for length and clarity.) SECRETARY RICE: What can I do for you? RCP: Well, I'm here to talk about Iraq. SECRETARY RICE: Okay. RCP: So I want to start by just talking about the last -- obviously, yesterday was another tough day. Last week, there was a very tough day. SECRETARY RICE: Right. RCP: And I know on some of the calls that I've been on with military commanders in Baghdad, they say...

Condoleezza Rice had been looking forward to this night for weeks. It was three days before her 52nd birthday, on a Saturday this past November, and she was taking 11 of her friends to the Kennedy Center to watch Yo-Yo Ma perform with the National Symphony Orchestra. On this night she would not have to think about Iraq or North Korea. A mix of glamour and seriousness, her looks, demeanor, and range of interests—from football to fashion—have been a source of stories both at home and abroad. President Bush has called her “Martha Stewart with access to nuclear codes.”

BCC leaders throw out teacher's suspension By Ashley BachSeattle Times Eastside bureauBellevue Community College leaders have thrown out a one-week unpaid suspension for an instructor who wrote a racially insensitive math question that sparked a national controversy last spring.(snip)A few years ago, Ratener wrote a question that presented a scenario about a person named "Condoleezza" throwing a watermelon off a roof.School officials said this demeaned U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and employed a racist caricature of blacks eating watermelons that dates to the 1800s.A student complained last spring, and by April the issue had become a national story. Some in...

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday rejected any comparison between the international community's handling of Iran's nuclear program and its policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany in 1938. "I am fond of historical analogies, but not that fond," Rice told Haaretz in an interview, responding to a question about the analogy frequently cited by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. However, she did lambaste Iran's behavior. "We clearly face a country that is pursuing policies in an assertive way that are contrary to the interests of the United States and are contrary to the interests of all people who want...

ALARM - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad BAGHDAD - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived Saturday morning to Baghdad for a short visit, one learned near a spokesman from the embassy from the United States in Iraq.

At a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Queens Rep. Gary Ackerman yesterday slammed the Pentagon for firing Middle East translators who were gay - and cracked jokes about a "platoon of lesbians" in Baghdad. Ackerman, a senior Democratic member of the House International Relations Committee, was questioning Rice at a hearing about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. He accused the Pentagon of firing military linguists fluent in Arabic and in the Iranian language Farsi who turned out to be gay. "For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are...

NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE When people say they're "speaking truth to power," you can assume they haven't had an original thought since the Beatles broke up. But that was how Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., characterized her interrogation of Condi Rice. While chastising the Bush administration for its plan to send more helpless American waifs into Iraq, Boxer said: "Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young." These are pertinent details; ever since 9/11, analysts have insisted that the fight against militant global Islamic jihadis hinges on...

Some fascinating details on the CIA leak affair are coming out in the courtroom of the Lewis Libby trial. This morning, for example, we got a better picture of why former ambassador Joseph Wilson decided to go public with his story, publishing an op-ed in the New York Times in July 2003. Prior to that time, Wilson had been talking to reporters on background — his name had not been linked to the whole Niger/yellowcake/16 words affair. But Wilson has said in a number of interviews that after watching the appearance of then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on "Meet the...

As The Stiletto was walking down E Capitol Street one day Nancy Pelosi looked at her and said her 100 Hours Watch had stopped cold dead And The Stiletto said Does anybody really know what time it is Does anybody really care If so The Stiletto can’t imagine why She’s a single woman, like Condolezza Rice NOTE: Original source includes links that add context (and extra snarkiness) to these parody lyrics.

The White House and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Democrats of suggesting that the secretary's childlessness, race and sex are to blame for mistakes in Iraq. White House spokesman Tony Snow said Sen. Barbara Boxer's comments that Miss Rice won't "pay the price" for her decisions in the Iraq war because she is unmarried and without children was a "great leap backward for feminism." "I don't know if she was intentionally that tacky, but I do think it's outrageous," he told Fox News. "Here you've got a professional woman, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Barbara Boxer is...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice let slip her news media preferences Thursday, saying, "I love every single one" of Fox News network's correspondents and also favors CBS anchor Harry Smith. In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them." But Rice told an aide that when she was next in Iraq she would like to do a "one-on-one" interview with CBS "The Early Show" anchor Harry Smith. "He's a decent guy. I know they are, like, 55 in the...

Crowds who paid up to $500 to hear Donald Trump speak on how to get rich instead heard "The Donald" bashing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and questioning the competence of the Bush administration. When talk of wealth turned to politics at the private class at the Learning Annex, Trump first discussed Rice. - said. "I don't care if she's lovely. I want someone who can go and make deals. She goes to countries and nothing ever happens except sound bites." Trump also talked about outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "Look at this guy Rumsfeld," Trump said. "Millions of people...

In a secret end run around Cheney and Rumsfeld, the secretary of state pressed Bush to back the Iraq Study Group -- and change the course of the war. In late 2005, three Washington insiders with foreign policy expertise were summoned to a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- a little-known event that may end up changing the course of the war in Iraq. The three men were working to help Rep. Frank Wolf, who wanted to create an independent panel to overhaul the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq, after a recent trip there left the Virginia Republican...

Condi Rice gives the “most pro-Palestinian Arab, anti-Israel speech in memory.” If the State Department has a religion, it’s Palestinian statehood. On its altar, diplomats are eager to sacrifice the security of America’s only reliable Middle East ally and, ultimately, our own security as well. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become the high priestess of this cult – muttering mystic incantations about Palestinian suffering under the brutal Israeli occupation and how a Palestinian state would be the crowning achievement of American foreign policy, much the way the Munich pact was the Olympic gold of British diplomacy.Her recent address to...

SEOUL, South Korea - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she would not try to dictate how U.S. allies enforce sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear program, and there were signs South Korea wouldn't quickly embrace Washington's approach. "The key is to live up to the obligation that all of us undertook" to bar North Korea from exporting nuclear technology or receiving overseas help for its nuclear program, Rice said after meetings with South Korea's president and top diplomat. South Korea and China are the communist North's closest neighbors and trading partners, accounting for two-thirds of its foreign...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the United States is ready to use the "full range" of its military might to defend Japan in light of North Korea's nuclear weapons test, and her Japanese counterpart drew a firm line against developing a Japanese bomb. The United States is concerned that Japan, South Korea or perhaps Taiwan may want to develop their own nuclear weapons programs to counter the threat from North Korea. Such moves would anger China, which already has nuclear weapons, and raise tensions in the region. Part of Rice's assignment on this week's hastily arranged trip to...

Condoleezza Rice in Iraqi Kurdistan after Baghdad ERBIL (Iraq) - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived Friday morning at Erbil, principal city of Iraqi Kurdistan, for discussions with the president of the autonomous area of Kurdistan Massoud Barzani, noted a journalist of AFP. Mrs. Rice had arrived Thursday to Iraq, in Baghdad, for a surprised visit intended to encourage the process of national reconciliation Iraqi, after visits in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. The American Secretary of State must go to London later in the course of the day to take part in the meeting of...

September 25, 2006 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. Rice hammered Clinton, who leveled his charges in a contentious weekend interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel, for his claims that the Bush administration "did not try" to kill Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the Sept. 11 attacks. "The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. Rice hammered Clinton, who leveled his charges in a contentious weekend interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News Channel, for his claims that the Bush administration "did not try" to kill Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the Sept. 11 attacks. "The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false - and I think...

It doesn't take much when you're the U.S. secretary of state, you're a woman and you're single. Condoleezza Ms. Rice spent some time this week with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay in his Nova Scotia riding. And there they were on the front page of the New York Times on Wednesday, clasping hands in greeting. The article, with the teaser headline “Dance of Diplomacy,” gently mocks the twitter of the gossip mill and “baseless speculation” about a blossoming romantic relationship. But the story took care to note that Mr. MacKay is “the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic...