Rice plugs GOP on conservative radio, TV
WASHINGTON --Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose job entails promoting U.S. aims abroad, is doing her part for Republicans on the home front these days.
In the final stretch before midterm elections that imperil Republican control of Congress, the most popular member of President Bush's Cabinet is selling the administration line on Iran, North Korea and Iraq in a string of interviews with conservative radio and television hosts.
Rice did 12 interviews in 11 days through Friday, an unusually busy schedule when Rice is not traveling. Ten of the sessions were with conservative hosts, including some in small heartland markets.
By comparison, Rice did 11 interviews with individual U.S. and foreign media in all of November 2005, most of them during a trip to the Middle East. None of the sessions were with conservative talk show hosts.
Although she shies away from direct discussions of politics, Rice's appearances this election season are part of a concerted White House effort to deploy key administration figures where they are most likely to be heard by conservative voters. Vice President Dick Cheney has made a similar media blitz, and several Cabinet members promoted the GOP during a White House "Radio Day" two weeks ago.
On Friday, syndicated conservative radio host Laura Ingraham asked Rice about North Korea, Iraq and her Halloween costume. (She didn't have one.) On Thursday it was the Bill Cunningham show in Cincinnati, covering North Korea, Iran and Bengals football. (She's a Browns fan, but she had kind words for the Cincinnati team.)
"These appearances are strictly for domestic consumption, and it is not therefore within her purview as the nation's top diplomat," said Mark Crispin Miller, who studies media and popular culture at New York University and is often critical of the Bush administration.
Rice's spokesman, Sean McCormack, denied that the media interviews are tied to the election. He said Rice makes a point of trying to explain U.S. foreign policy in a variety of venues.
"This isn't abnormal," McCormack said Friday. "She talks to people in regional media all the time, frequently, because she believes it's important to talk to the American people about foreign policy and what our policies are."
There is some precedent. Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, did interviews with conservative TV personalities Bill Bennett and Tony Snow in October 2004, just before the presidential election that gave Bush a second term.
Rice regularly fields difficult questions at press conferences and interviews with U.S. and foreign media, and her travel and media exposure will probably outpace Powell's by the close of Bush's second term. The recent interviews with conservative hosts, however, have been light lifting.
Although it is the defining foreign policy problem of Bush's two-term presidency and a dominant complaint among disaffected Republicans, Iraq is rarely the first topic Rice is asked to address. She has gotten no questions about her own role as an architect of the war policy when she was Bush's first-term national security adviser, and few about her plans for remedying the country's slide into violence and political deadlock.
Iraq did not come up at all during the 10-minute Cunningham interview.
Cunningham told his guest that "as an American living in the heartland," he was proud to have Rice as secretary of state. "Stay there at least two more years and run for President in '08," he enthused.
Rice laughed off the compliments and said, as she has many times before, that she isn't interested in a White House run.
The State Department or the White House tells interviewers their sessions should be confined to foreign policy. The administration suggests general topics but does not dictate particular questions.
"We were told she did not want to talk about politics, she wanted to talk about secretary of state business" and would take a question or two on football, said Rich Walburg, assistant program director at 700 WLW, where Cunningham's show originates. Walburg said he was surprised that Rice agreed to do the show, although he has also scored interviews with Snow -- now White House press secretary -- and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. All were arranged through a White House aide, Walburg said.
Syndicated interviewer Glenn Beck asked Rice: "Would you agree that our enemies, their end game is global domination, a global caliphate? Is that the end game that we're looking at?"
"Certainly for al-Qaida that is the end game that they wish to see," Rice replied.
Bill Bennett told her that "people need to bear in mind" that the United States has taken up arms "to liberate Muslims," but a recent survey suggests that American Muslims are voting Democratic this year.
"I know that's politics; that's not your department," Bennett added.
Rice did not reply directly.
"We understand that the daily pictures from Iraq that the loss of life of American men and women in uniform is extremely difficult for Americans to take," she said. "But nothing of value is ever won without sacrifice."
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On the Net:
Rice interview transcripts: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/
