Condi may jilt George
Say she's set to pass on sec'y of state chance
By THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice is supposed to be a slam dunk for secretary of state in a second Bush administration. But she may do the unthinkable and just say no.
Friends and colleagues of the national security adviser report that the 49-year-old Rice is exhausted, approaching burnout and aching to return to her idyllic previous life as a tenured professor at Stanford.
"I would be surprised if she stays in government at all," one well-placed source told the Daily News. "From a personal standpoint, she wants her life back."
Several sources say that for months, Rice has been telling disbelieving fellow National Security Council staffers, close friends - even journalists - that it's time for her to go.
"I've never been one to believe you should stay in one place too long," a White House colleague recalls her saying last fall.
"She says things like that all the time," another colleague added.
Now, apparently, she's trying to get the same message to her boss, who is so high on Rice that he considers her practically part of the family.
"She's sent out major [indirect] signals to him: Please don't send me to the State Department, please don't do that to me," a Rice confidant reported.
There's no way to know if those thanks-but-no-thanks messages have registered - and some senior Bush officials say Rice simply couldn't turn down an offer to become what Alexander Haig once called the vicar of U.S. diplomacy.
But Rice has a history of saying no to Presidents. In 1991, despite pleas by President George H.W. Bush and national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, her mentor, Rice resigned as the National Security Council's Soviet specialist after only two years.
"The Soviet Union was collapsing, it was the culmination of her career, and she walked," a then-National Security Council staffer marveled. "But that's Condi. She gets restless if she doesn't have fresh challenges."
Rice declined comment on her future plans. Her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said: "I don't think anybody, including Dr. Rice, is focusing on what their next job will be. We have more than enough work to do right now."
Long before his election, Bush was telling associates he intended to name Rice as his second secretary of state, succeeding Colin Powell, and Bush insiders say there's no evidence he has changed his mind.
One Rice admirer said she's dead set against State, but might be tempted to run the Pentagon if asked. Of course, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would have to follow through on taking his expected honorable discharge.
Rice's first job in government was as a foreign affairs fellow with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1986. She still talks about how much she enjoyed that posting.
Nonetheless, Rice has tired of the National Security Council pressure cooker. "She's not just on call," a friend commiserates. "She has to be prepared 24/7 to take a call from the President. I don't know how she does it. I don't know how any one person could do it."
Rice's departure would be a personal as well as professional blow to the President. She spends more time with him than any other subordinate, including frequent weekends at Camp David, where she and Bush play tennis and work out in the gym.
"She's as close as they're going to get to considering anyone outside the family 'family,' " a Bush source noted.
Rice is so close that she has drawn the ultimate perk - a guest bedroom at the Bush home in Crawford, Tex. After a few ranch overnights, however, she opted to move to the adjoining guest house.
"Her phone rings so often she thinks it's rude to the President and Laura," one aide said.
Originally published on February 8, 2004
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