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Rice says she won't give Clinton too much advice
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-02 09:02 LONDON -- Happily contemplating another woman as the top US diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she will offer advice, privately, and then get out of the way. "She won't, and you won't, hear from me again," Rice said on the day President-elect Barack Obama named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the next secretary of state. "I will certainly not make the effort to comment on everything that is done."
Rice, in London on a farewell tour, said there's a lot to recommend the US system of four-year presidential terms, and thus relatively short tours of duty for Cabinet ministers.
Rice also noted that Clinton would be the third woman among the last four people to be US secretary of state. That fourth occupant of the job, Colin Powell, "was a black man, so white men are trailing pretty badly," Rice said. The third woman, Madeleine Albright, served during the administration of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton. The job is one of the most visible in the world, a distinction Rice has clearly enjoyed but also found confining. "I am very fond of her, I think she has worked very hard on behalf of the country, I think she really comported herself well in the (Democratic presidential) campaign," Rice said of Clinton, who lost a tense nominating contest to Obama earlier this year. |
