What a Lovely Non-Answer, Ms. Rice

By Al Kamen
Monday, June 19, 2006

Loop Fans always ask: Is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice really that good at diplomacy? Answer: Yes, she is.

Notice how she handled this curveball last week from Greensboro (N.C.) News and Record reporter Nancy McLaughlin during an interview when Rice was in North Carolina to address the Southern Baptist Convention.

"Recently the [same-sex] marriage amendment failed, and that was disappointing to a number of people here at the convention," McLaughlin said. "Polls say that same-sex marriage is becoming more acceptable. What are your views?"

"Well, look, this is not my area of expertise or, frankly, my area of concentration at this point," Rice said. "I do think that this is an issue that can be debated and can be discussed in our country with respect for every human being. And when we get into difficult debates about social policy, we get into difficult debates that touch people's lives; the only thing that I ask is that Americans do it with a kind of sensitivity that real individuals and real human beings are involved here."

Note: Rice could have brushed her off and said, "Not my job." But she didn't. That would have been discourteous. She could have said she favored such marriages. She could have said she's opposed. Instead, we have a thoughtful, eloquent, satisfying non-answer. That's diplomacy.

Of course, when she's on the road, Rice doesn't have to put up with a bothersome, cynical Washington press corps.

"Well, I won't be disrespectful," McLaughlin said. "I understand that I only had seven minutes."

"I thank you very much," Rice said.

"We love you here in Greensboro," McLaughlin said. "I just wanted to say that with my time."

"Well, thank you," Rice said. "Really nice to meet you. Thank you. Want to take a picture together?"

"Yeah, sure."

When Iraqi Eyes Are Smiling

Despite pejorative media stories about the Bush administration selling ambassadorships, money alone might not be enough to buy you an excellent posting in Dublin.

Sure, millionaire businessman Thomas C. Foley of Greenwich, Conn., tapped last week for the job, raised and contributed boatloads of money to Republicans over the years. And he was a top fundraiser and co-chairman of the Connecticut Bush reelection effort.

Of course, it didn't hurt that he was a longtime friend of Bush's. His late brother was a classmate of Bush's at Harvard Business School. But Ireland might require more. And Foley has done much more. Bush recruited Foley in the summer of 2003 to go to Iraq and run the private-sector development program under the disastrous Coalition Provisional Authority headed by former Iraq viceroy L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer.

More than anything, it may be his boundless optimism about Iraq -- and his analysis of the situation there after his return to the United States in 2004 -- that ensured a fine job was his if he wanted it.

For example, in April 2004, Foley spoke of his experience at the annual conference of the Ex-Im Bank here.

"The Iraq I came to know is a place where most Iraqis are going about their business," he said, according to the Hartford Courant. "It's a place where all the Iraqis I know are truly grateful that the U.S. came in and liberated them from a brutal tyrant."

Next Up for Interior: J. Peterman Catalogues

Top political and career officials at the Department of the Interior have been working flat out these days, trying to come up with an agenda for new Secretary Dirk Kempthorne . Dozens of them retreated June 8 and 9 to a federal training center in West Virginia to brainstorm. Kempthorne may have a limited time to do something meaningful, a source said, so the idea was to come up with things he might consider.

Interior's White House liaison, Christopher Marston , followed up with an e-mail memo last week to "Fellow Retreat Participants."

"Doug, Russ and I have been charged with adding factoids and poetry to the attached list prepared by 'the Julie Team,' [ Julie Jacobson , a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Land Management] which the team presented to us Friday morning.

"We would appreciate it if you could help us with our task," Marston wrote. "We're particularly eager for information in the Hammacher-Schlemmer mail-order catalog model (for those of you who don't get . . . this great catalog, almost all descriptions start with 'the best, the biggest, the newest, the greatest).'

"For example," something poetic such as "the Department of Interior leads the most robust methane hydrates research program in the world."

Not bad. Kinda catchy. Keats would be proud.