Condoleeza Rice, the woman best known for brazenly lying to the commission investigating the September 11 attacks, is President Bush's choice to be the next secretary of state.

Although Rice is clearly intelligent and capable, her tenure as national security adviser raises many troubling questions about her character. Rice was, apparently, the last to know that the documents purporting to document Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium from Niger were forgeries. She failed to advise the president to remove the infamous 16 words from his State of the Union address.

Rice -- the National Security Advisor, mind you -- would go on to claim that she hadn't read that 90 page National Intelligence Estimate thoroughly, or even to the end. (See here and here.)

Rice also engaged in standard administration fear mongering regarding Iraq's nuclear program, telling Jim Lehrer that Iraq had "an active procurement network to procure items, many of which, by the way, were on the prohibited list of the nuclear suppliers group. There's a reason that they were on the prohibited list of the nuclear supplies group: Magnets, balancing machines, yes, aluminum tubes, about which the consensus view was that they were suitable for use in centrifuges to spin material for nuclear weapons." Rice also pushed the descredited myth of al Qaida-Iraq connections, telling Tim Russert: "Saddam Hussein -- no one has said that there is evidence that Saddam Hussein directed or controlled 9/11, but let's be very clear, he had ties to al-Qaeda, he had al-Qaeda operatives who had operated out of Baghdad."

Rice Is Named Secretary of State

Washington Post, November 17, 2004

President Bush named his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to succeed Colin L. Powell as secretary of state yesterday, turning to a confidante at a time when the White House is vowing to mend ties with Europe and put more energy into brokering Middle East peace.

Rice, who tutored Bush in foreign policy when he was Texas governor and sat at his side through two wars, will head seven blocks, from the West Wing to Foggy Bottom, to take charge of diplomacy for a president who values bluntness, and to try to assert control over a department that some at the White House consider hostile territory.

Rice, who turned 50 on Sunday, appeared with Bush at a Roosevelt Room ceremony where he called the secretary of state "America's face to the world."

"In Dr. Rice, the world will see the strength, the grace and the decency of our country," Bush said, before kissing her on the right cheek. "The nation needs her."

Aides said Bush, seeking more discipline and harmony in his war cabinet, had discussed the job with her for weeks and perhaps months and never seriously considered anyone else.

Rice, who will be fourth in line of succession to the presidency, will be the first African American woman in the job. She is a classical pianist, was a Stanford University provost and political science professor, and specialized in the former Soviet Union as a National Security Council official for President George H.W. Bush. She once was an intern in the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Freepers say:

Congratulations to a woman of honor and integrity. (link)

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Good to see someone at state who is not allergic to kicking ass if necessary.(link)

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I suppose it's too much to hope for that State should be cleaned out. Eisenhower couldn't do it. Nixon couldn't do it. Reagan couldn't do it. But it would be nice to get rid of at least a few of the worst offenders, especially among the Arabist faction.(link)

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It's good for the ARAB leaders to see that every woman is not a hideous, incompetent troll like Helen Thomas, oops I mean Maddy Albright.(link)