On the Road with Condi and Jack

BAGHDAD, April 3 -- A sly smile began to form on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's face as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw explained Monday why they had the authority to put pressure on Iraqi politicians to form a government. The massive investment of money and manpower by the United States and Britain, he said, gave them "a right to say, 'We've got to be able to deal with Mr. A, Mr. B or Mr. C. We can't deal with Mr. Nobody.' "

Rice broke in, "Jack, I'm sure we'd be all right with Miss A or Miss B or Miss C, too, right?" As reporters burst out laughing, Straw put a hand against his face and recovered, "Yeah, we would. . . . "

"Who knows?" Rice said. "Let's leave it open."

"I was not being gender-specific," Straw said in mock protest. "Don't report me, please."

So it goes on "The Condi and Jack Show," which was on the fifth day of its current run on Monday.

Combining hard-nosed foreign initiatives with tourism and local politicking, the diplomatic duo has bounced across Europe and the Middle East, personifying the "special relationship" between their countries.

On Thursday, they were in Berlin, jawboning the Russians and Chinese on Iran's nuclear program. Rice took a brief detour to Paris and then ended up that same day in Liverpool, England. On Friday and Saturday, Straw squired her around the former Beatles haunt and the town of Blackburn, which he represents in Parliament. They then flew together on an unannounced trip to Iraq for a dramatic two-day visit here to prod Iraqi politicians into action. On Monday, they ended their journey back in London for dinner with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

They are a bit of an odd couple: an elegantly dressed African American woman who grew up in the segregated South and a plain blue-suit-and-tie Englishman who carries a red wooden box as a briefcase. Rice, 51, is a former academic whose sentences sometimes get tangled in modifiers, caveats and endless clauses; Straw, 59, is an experienced and candid politician whose skillful turns of phrase make good sound bites. Rice has been involved in foreign policy issues since becoming enamored of Russian studies in college; Straw had no experience in foreign policy before becoming a surprise choice as foreign secretary in 2001.

Aides say they genuinely like each other and -- unlike many high-powered figures -- don't seem to get on each other's nerves. Straw is the only foreign minister Rice will regularly pick up the phone and call, rather than having the State Department operations center arrange the conversation. When they flew overnight to Baghdad, Rice gave Straw the bed in her cabin and slept on the floor in the aisle, prompting the Guardian newspaper to quip that Straw had been "embedded." Straw said he thought Rice had another bed on the plane and was mortified the next morning when he discovered she had slept on the floor.

The most recent roadshow stemmed from Rice's belief that time spent overseas helps build personal relationships that can pay off later in diplomacy. Although the British and the Americans are close allies on many matters, they have policy disputes over such issues as Guantanamo Bay and global warming, while Blair's support of the Iraq war has damaged him at home politically.

Last October, Rice invited Straw and his wife to her home town of Birmingham, Ala., giving them a weekend tour of important places in her childhood. The trip made a deep impression on Straw, who said it helped him gain an appreciation for a comment that Rice had made at her first news conference in London: "When the Founding Fathers said, 'We the people,' they didn't mean me.' "

The trip to Blackburn -- an ethnically mixed town that is home to one of England's largest concentrations of Muslims -- was Straw's effort to return the favor. Rice's appearance sparked controversy, as antiwar protesters greeted her at almost every stop and a visit to a mosque was canceled. But the visit also gave Rice a chance to make the case for the Iraq war and U.S. foreign policy in general, in effect doing public diplomacy at ground level.

The media coverage in England was decidedly mixed. The London newspaper the Times, describing the Blackburn visit as a "tense but hopeful second date," ran a series of photographs of Straw holding Rice's shoulders and touching her arms. The newspaper quoted a body-language expert speculating on their relationship.

By the end of trip, the two would sometimes finish each other's sentences and even had begun to rub off on each other. Rice began to sound a bit like Straw, using more simple, direct language to describe the political stakes for the United States in Iraq. Straw, for his part, made sure to speak of Mr. A or Miss B.