Bush taps Rice to replace Powell as nation’s top diplomat

WASHINGTON: President George W Bush promoted his most trusted foreign policy adviser to Secretary of State yesterday, tapping Condoleezza Rice to replace warrior-turned-diplomat Colin Powell as part of a sweeping  second-term Cabinet overhaul. “The secretary of state is America’s face to the world and in Dr Rice the world will see the strength, grace and decency of our country,” Bush said of his national security adviser. He thanked Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national security adviser, for working “tirelessly and selflessly” on behalf of the country.

Rice is the second White House loyalist to land a Cabinet post since Bush’s re-election triggered a top-tier shake-up that has presented several agency heads with the clear impression that their services were no longer needed. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales is Bush’s nominee to replace Attorney General John Ashcroft. Bush named Stephen Hadley, Rice’s deputy, to replace her as national security adviser, the top White House-based foreign policy aide. Rice, who is considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than Powell, has been Bush’s national security adviser for four years. But while she’s known around the globe, her image on the world stage does not rival Powell’s. The retired four-star general has higher popularity ratings than the president.

“Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror,” Rice said to her boss during the Roosevelt Room announcement. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first black woman secretary of state. Rice, raised in the segregated South, is an accomplished pianist and Russian scholar who Bush said was “taught that human dignity is a gift of God and that the ideals of America would overcome oppression.” Bush asked the Senate for quick confirmation. “The nation needs her,” he said. Besides Powell and Ashcroft, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Venemen and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham resigned as Bush sought a fresh start for a second term.