HALL-A-FREAKIN'-LUJAH!:

Not Always Diplomatic in Her First Major Post: Condoleezza Rice, about to become secretary of State, was a divisive figure while at Stanford. (Mark Z. Barabak, January 16, 2005, LA Times)

She helped lead the nation to war and in the process became one of President Bush's closest friends and most intimate advisors.

But even before she headed the National Security Council, Condoleezza Rice held a job that required grit, skill, political savvy and a sublime degree of self-confidence: running Stanford University.

Her years as provost left a deep divide here on the elite Northern California campus, much as her polarizing performance as war counsel has defined her image nationally.

As the university's No. 2 administrator, Rice is widely credited with helping the school regain its footing during the 1990s after red ink and a financial scandal threatened to engulf it.

But critics say Rice was harsh, even ruthless, during her administration, the one time in her gilded career she has overseen a large institution. Improbably, the youngest provost in Stanford history and the first black and woman to hold the post helped prompt a Labor Department probe into the treatment of women and minorities.

As she prepares to become the nation's chief diplomat, even some campus admirers foresee upheaval at the Department of State, a far more unwieldy institution than the Bush White House. Her confirmation hearing as secretary of State is to begin Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

"You can imagine her confronting a State Department culture that will have some similarities to what she presided over here at Stanford. A culture very traditional, very set in its ways, very consensual and consultative in manner,'' said David Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.

"She's tremendously smart and quick on the uptake, analytically very gifted," said Kennedy, who served as Rice's first boss when she came to Stanford in 1981 to teach political science. "But I wouldn't be surprised if, despite that veneer of utter graciousness, in practice she doesn't cut against the grain of the State Department culture to some degree."

Hopefully he's not overpromising.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 16, 2005 9:51 AM