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Rice Thought Palestinian Leader Weak WASHINGTON, Sep. 2, 2007 AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thought Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a weak disappointment, and she once judged President Bush's signature Mideast peace program unworkable, according to a new biography. Months into her term as secretary of state in 2005, Rice considered Abbas "a nice man but ineffective," and she worried Abbas was unworthy of the investment in trust and money the U.S. had placed in him, the book says. At the time, Bush and Rice were publicly trying to bolster Abbas as the more palatable alternative to the late Yasser...

Book details Rice's struggle with diplomatic setbacks Sep 2 12:14 PM US/Eastern In her two years as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice has had limited success in her efforts to fix the US diplomatic setbacks she helped create during President George W. Bush's first term, says a new book on the chief US diplomat. As Bush's national security advisor during his first term, Rice was at the center of decisions that she has struggled to mend since becoming secretary of state in January 2005, journalist Glenn Kessler writes in "The Confidante." "She was one of the weakest national security advisors...