"A conversation, not a monologue." "The time for diplomacy is now." There could be little to disagree with in the first day of Condoleezza Rice's hearing before the senate committee that will decide if she is fit to replace Colin Powell as US secretary of state. It was perhaps a signal that she may indeed be a diplomat that much of the US reaction centres on her examiners. The Chicago Sun Times observes that she dealt with some "less-than-diplomatic questioning on her way to becoming the nation's top diplomat", especially from California senator Barbara Boxer, who suggested that loyalty to George Bush and zeal to sell the Iraq war had overwhelmed her respect for the truth.
New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin argued that the "bareknuckle back-and-forth" between Ms Boxer and Ms Rice amounted to nothing less than the senator's "terminal meltdown" (she also voted against certifying Mr Bush's election win) and her desire to take the Democratic party down with her. The blogs – at least those that discussed Ms Rice's appearance – were also more interested in the senate committee members. Wonkette noted John Kerry had the ability to make jokes (he welcomed Ms Rice to the "world of oaths and testimony and congressional accountability, which I tried so hard to distance myself from") and Little Green Footballs, a rightwing site, applauded Democrat senator Joseph Biden's call for Europe to "get over" Mr Bush's re-election.
But Ms Rice did not really make big waves on the blogs. The biggest news in the US political blogosphere at the moment is the building up of Dean's campaign to chair the Democratic party. Captain's Quarters can surely not be alone in finding traces of deja vu in headlines such as Dean gaining early momentum in DNC race.
The Washington Post and New York Times meanwhile concentrate on more of the hearing's details and the Democrat senators' emphasis on her advocacy of the Iraq war. According Ms Boxer more respect than the Daily News columnist, the New York Times notes that she was the only one on the panel who challenged Ms Rice on being a public face of the drive to war, and her apocalyptic remarks about non-existent Iraqi nuclear weapons.
Little came out of the hearing – she stuck close to Bush administration lines, refusing to give a date for withdrawal from Iraq – but the Miami Herald picks up on what may be an enlargement of the axis of evil. Iraq is gone, but joining Iran and North Korea as "outposts of tyranny" are Cuba, Burma, Belarus and Zimbabwe. Ms Rice also claimed that Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, was a "regional troublemaker".
Ms Rice began well as she set out her stall as an internationalist but there is little sign of an end to the Bush administration's radicalism in its foreign policy. How that will radicalism will be felt may well be determined by how far Ms Rice's "conversation" will fare against Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the more monologue-minded members of the administration.
