In contrast, he recalled, her predecessor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger would call and demand, " 'Did you see what was in the paper? Did you leak that? Where did that come from?' And I'd say, 'Sandy, is that you?'
"When Condi came in, it was, wow, she's so civil."
Then he hastily added, "But there's also tremendous iron behind her."
She eats and travels light. Rice has introduced healthy food to the Air Force Two menus, cutting back on the cheeseburgers and fries preferred by the beefcake Diplomatic Security, the State Department's equivalent of the Secret Service. (The new head of her security detail is a former nose guard who played college football in Wyoming and Kentucky.) In the past, State Department trips have virtually guaranteed an uncomfortable weight gain.
But Rice prefers fish and salad -- so the rest of the plane often gets them, too. Her diplomatic counterparts also comply. In her dinner with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Ankara, the Turkish capital, the menu was a simple shrimp dish. She snacks on fruit, while the rest of the plane gets cookies and candy bars, and takes frequent short naps, sometimes between the announcement to fasten seatbelts and landing, aides say.
Rice even packs light -- one modest suitcase and hanging suit bag. Her immediate necessities she packs in a brown and black Cleveland Browns bag, reflecting a loyalty dating back to childhood. And for much of the trip she's worn the same pair of pointed black pumps with bows, although aides swear she brought at least two other pairs of shoes.
Like presidents, secretaries of state go through a honeymoon. When President Clinton appointed Madeleine Albright as his second-term secretary of state, Newsweek ran a cover raving "Mad About Madeleine," reflecting widespread respect for the first woman to become America's top diplomat.
But the honeymoons rarely last. At the end of her four-year tenure, Albright's novelty as the most powerful woman in U.S. history had worn off -- and the State Department couldn't fill even half the press seats on her plane.
