Wolfowitz Appointment Draws Fire

Former State chief also denies that race clouded Bush Katrina response

(NEWSER) - Condoleezza Rice appeared on The View today to defend Bush administration policies, and lament a few key mistakes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Rice expressed regret that weapons of mass destruction never surfaced in Iraq—but stands behind the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Rice also said Hurricane Katrina was “one of the greatest disasters for the administration,” but had harsh words for critics of President Bush’s response. More»

White House braces for debut of Iraq-centric The War Within

(NEWSER) - Bob Woodward’s fourth book on the Bush White House, originally a mere 352 pages, has ballooned into 496 pages of inside dope and is due in stores Sept. 8, Politico reports. And the mystery-shrouded volume, which focuses on the Iraq conflict, officially has a name: The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008. Simon & Schuster says it plans to print 900,000 copies. More»

Rice's lousy record should keep her off Romney ticket: Bret Stephens

(NEWSER) - Did you like the Bush administration? No? Then why the heck would you want Condoleezza Rice to be Mitt Romney's running mate, asks Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal . A recent poll had Rice as Republican voters' top choice for the ticket, and it's easy to see why. "He's the business whiz; she's the foreign-policy wonk," Stephens muses. "He's the un-Obama; she's the un-Palin. He's the world's whitest white man; she isn't." There's just one problem: Rice was bad at her job. More»

Former secretary of state says she never 'tearfully admitted' anything

(NEWSER) - Add Condoleezza Rice to the list of people torqued by Dick Cheney's opus: The former secretary of state is taking umbrage to Cheney's assertion that she "tearfully admitted I had been right" that the administration shouldn't apologize over a claim in George W Bush's 2003 State of the Union. "It certainly doesn't sound like me, now, does it?" Rice bristles. "I would never—I don't remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him." More»

A look back at the retiring defense secretary's career

(NEWSER) - With Robert Gates, who has served eight presidents over four decades, about to retire, the Washington Post looks back at how Gates operated in the Pentagon. He’s been “careful, conservative, and consensus-oriented,” writes Greg Jaffe, and he’s “earned a reputation as the most ruthlessly efficient defense secretary in decades.” So what can we learn from his tenure?

• Buy time. Defense Department reviews following troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan gave Presidents Bush and Obama a sense of the military’s trajectory—and they bought time against critics calling for quick drawdowns.