President asks Rice to replace
Powell as Secretary of State
By SCOTT LINDLAW
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Bush on
Tuesday picked National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who once
tutored him on global affairs, to be his
top diplomat, saying her foreign-policy
experience and struggle against racispi
uniquely qualified her to be America’s
“face to the world” as secretary of state.
“In Dr. Rice, the world will see the
strength, the grace and the decency of
our country,” Bush said.
Rice will face major challenges across
the foreign policy spectrum, trying to
advance peace between Israel and the
Palestinians, foster democracy in Iraq
and persuade North Korea and Iran to
step back from suspected nuclear
weapons programs. She is considered
more of a hard-liner than Secretary of
State Colin Powell, who was out of step
with more hawkish members of Bush’s
national security team.
In a Roosevelt Room announcement,
Bush made plain that terrorism and the
Middle East conflict topped his list of
foreign-policy priorities. Rice’s eyes
welled with tears as the president cited
her “deep, abiding belief in the value and
power of liberty, because she has seen
freedom denied and freedom reborn.”
Rice, who would be the first black
woman to serve as secretary of state, was
somewhat sheltered as a youngster in
Alabama from the racial conflicts and
segregation of the South. Her
schoolteacher parents guided her into
ballet, piano and French studies; her
mother bought all her Girl Scout cookies
so she wouldn’t have to go door-to-door.
But when she was 9, a bomb exploded at
a Baptist church a few miles away,
killing four black girls, one of them a
schoolmate.
“As a girl in the segregated South, Dr.
Rice saw the promise of America
violated by racial discrimination and by
the violence that comes from hate,”
Bush said. “But she was taught by her
mother, Angelina, and her father, the
Rev. John Rice, that human dignity is
the gift of God and that the ideals of
America would overcome oppression.”
Rice was careful to say nothing about
how she would oversee the State
Department, its nearly 30,000
employees and its 265 posts around the
world.
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Bush looks on as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice speaks to the press, after Bush
announced that Rice was his choice as Secretary of State, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House,
Tuesday in Washington. Bush turned to his most trusted foreign policy adviser, Rice, to lead U.S.
diplomacy during his second term, replacing Secretary of State Colin Powell.
In a statement read from a prepared
text, she confined her remarks to
heaping praise on Bush and Powell.
“It is humbling to imagine
succeeding my dear friend and mentor,
Colin Powell. He is one of the finest
public servants our nation has ever
produced,” Rice said.
Her cautious remarks reflected the
potential minefield she faces in Senate
confirmation hearings, likely to come
the second week of December.
“I think she’ll get hard questioning.
That’s inevitable,” said Sen. Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, the majority
whip. But McConnell and newly elected
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of
Nevada predicted Rice would win
approval.
Rice should “be confirmed fairly
easily unless there’s something I don’t
know,” Reid said.
Sitting silendy in the first row at
Bush’s announcement was the
president’s pick to succeed Rice as
national security adviser, Stephen
Hadley, who served with Rice for four
years.
Asked whether his family knew long
hours were in store for him, Hadley
quipped: “What’s different?”
But Bush elicited a smile from
Hadley when he said: “Steve is a man of
wisdom and good judgment.”
“He has earned my trust, and I look
forward to his continued vital service on
my national security team,” Bush said.
National Security Council officials
said they expected no change in the
organization’s direction, but a lower
profile for Hadley.
Whereas Rice has granted regular
interviews to promote the
administration’s foreign policy, Hadley
is more media-shy.
Aides describe Hadley as a
multitasker and seasoned Washington
insider with a good sense of humor, even
when the news is bad.
Bush’s Cabinet has been exceptionally
stable, with only four departures in the
nearly four years before the election.
But Powell’s resignation put Bush on
a course to have roughly the average
turnover after re-election.
In all, six Cabinet officers have
announced their departures, and more
are expected.
■ BLOOD
Continued from page 1
FDA section of criteria that deals with
possible HIV infection, officials say.
“The FDA is a panel of experts that
are extremely thorough, but I don’t
think you should blanket one
demographic of people,” said Scott,
who has rare, type-O blood. “My
blood can go to any person, but they
won’t take it because I am gay.”
Scott said that in high school, he
was also the student government
president and was going to give blood,
while being filmed by a news crew,
and when rejected because of his
sexual preference, he walked out and
told the crew that he couldn’t give
because of a medication he was taking.
“The questions we ask on the Blood
Donation Record form are there to
protea people,” said Rhonda
O’Banion, the public relations manager
of the local Red Cross chapter. “This is
a health issue not a social issue, we can’t
change it because of that.”
The FDA regulates the American
Red Cross, so such policy decisions are
not subject to scrutiny by the Red
Cross.
“Our purpose is to provide safe
blood and we will do everything we can
to maintain that safety,” Austin said.
Scott said he feels such criteria for
donation are only passing
generalizations on the gay community,
but he said he doesn’t feel the Red
Cross is “homophobic.”
Attention, Scott says, should not be
devoted to the issue of whether
homosexuals should donate blood for
the political aspect, but for the health
ramifications it entails.
“I don’t think this should be a
political issue, if a scientist tells me
something I am going to believe it,”
Scott said. “Social stigmas in the
medical community will change, I
think it will diminish as techniques of
testing for blood get better.”
Short of sexuality and the habits
therein, Austin says that there are a
number of other criteria that are
keeping 40 percent of the national
population from donating blood.
“If they have had a tattoo in the last
12 months or maybe they don’t weigh
enough are some of the criteria less
noticed,” Austin said.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
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