Lawmakers Grill Rice Over the Iraq War

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found herself at the intersection of anger and ambition when senators called her to account Thursday for a deeply unpopular war.

Five presidential aspirants on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as other up-and-comers in the new Democratic majority, made sure their voices were heard. And these voices _ Republican ones included _ were full of frustration and mistrust about how President Bush has prosecuted and pitched the Iraq war.

Even Rice's status as a single woman was fair game.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., noted Rice has no children of her own to lose overseas. "Who pays the price?" Boxer repeatedly demanded. "You're not going to pay a particular price," she told Rice, because the secretary has no "immediate family" at risk.

On the other side of the Capitol, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a new face on the years-old Iraq policy, largely got a pass when he testified before the House Armed Service Committee about Bush's Iraq strategy.

Rice is notably unflappable. Her face was tight, her voice even, occasionally and briefly speeding up to meet the jabs coming her way. She did not give much away or lose her temper.

But she might find her trip to the volatile Middle East starting Friday a vacation compared with her time before the committee.

Rice calmly walked the committee through the revamped war plan while acknowledging that what has been done until now has not succeeded. "I ask that you give it a chance to work," she said.

"There have been other critical times for America, when we have united as one nation to meet great challenges. Now must be such a time, for it is a national desire and a national imperative not to fail in Iraq."

Years of pent-up frustration in both parties spilled over.

A "fool's paradise," was how Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who had just announced his Democratic presidential candidacy hours earlier, described Iraq policy.

"A tragic mistake," was how Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, the committee chairman and White House hopeful, put it.