Rice could increase State Department prominence

WASHINGTON -- Condoleezza Rice has been both protege and mentor to President Bush in his first four years in the White House. So he is bound to feel comfortable with the former Stanford University provost running the State Department.\nThey chat easily and interchangeably, without a hint of divergence, about perceived threats to U.S. national security. There is no reason to expect that comity to falter.\nThe outlook is for a more secure Bush, spared Secretary of State Colin Powell's steady stream of reminders about the impact that a unilateral and aggressive foreign policy might have on friends and foes around the world.\n"She is very able," Zbigniew Brzezinski, former President Carter's national security adviser, said of Rice on Tuesday.\nBut in a cautionary note, Brzezinski questioned whether the complexity of America's situation in the world should be reduced to "grand formulas" that are hostile to nuances.\n"You cannot reduce everything to the global war on terrorism," Brzezinski said in an interview.\nRice, who mentored Bush on foreign policy and national security, has never indicated publicly any difference in view with him. She helped Bush respond to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by declaring war on terrorism, and she had a hand in plotting the war on Iraq.\nThe faulty intelligence that Saddam Hussein had hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction passed through her hands to the president, but that is unlikely to slow her confirmation.\nOn Tuesday, there was no sign of any serious opposition to Rice's nomination in the Republican-controlled Senate.\n"She may have a few bumps in the road," said incoming Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday. But the Nevadan, appearing on NBC's "Today" show, also said "she should be approved."\nSen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pledged to speed her approval, saying Rice "brings extraordinary talents and a gamut of experience to her new responsibilities." He is trying to arrange a confirmation hearing for sometime between Dec. 6 and Dec. 8.\nThe senior Democrat on the committee, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, called Bush's selection of Rice a "sound choice" and said he looked forward to working with her.\nIn Europe, Rice has raised some eyebrows, especially last year with her suggestions of how Washington should treat European opponents of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.\n"Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia," Rice was widely quoted as telling associates in the spring of 2003.\nAt Stanford, Rice's specialty was Soviet and Eastern European policy, as it was for her on former President Bush's National Security Council. Those areas receded in importance with the end of the Cold War and the rise of anti-U.S. terrorism and the proliferation of dangerous weapons technology as primary concerns.\nLee Feinstein, who worked for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the Clinton administration, said the choice of Rice "is in keeping with the retooling of the second Bush administration in which the top posts are going to Bush's confidants."\nFeinstein, who is at the Council on Foreign Relations, rejected any suggestion that Bush, in his second term, would take a more moderate approach, as the late President Reagan did the second time around.\n"The choice of Rice is a clear signal the president believes he was re-elected to do more of what he did in his first term, which is to pursue a foreign policy that seeks to limit constraints on America's freedom of action," Feinstein said.\nDimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, said there was no question Rice had grown in her job and was very close to the president. Simes said that was essential for any secretary of state.\n"The problem with Powell, for whom I have great admiration, is that while he was pragmatic he never quite fit into the team," Simes said. "There were a number of times when it was not just his views but his aloof standing that undermined his effectiveness."\nRichard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute said, "Her most obvious and greatest strength as secretary of state is her close relationship to the president."\nThat closeness, Perle said, will be "highly advantageous for her and for the orderly conduct of foreign policy." This was never the case between Bush and Powell, he noted.\nPerle said he rejected the idea there were two competing camps in the government, ideologues and realists. "Every one of the foreign challenges we face has a practical component that is overwhelming," he said.\nBrzezinski said, "Her appointment means the center of gravity in foreign policy-making is shifting to the Department of State."\nVice President Dick Cheney will remain a player, Brzezinski said, but Rice "will have a platform. She will be the voice, and she has a very special relationship with the president"