For Condoleezza Rice, it was high-heeled boots. When George W. Bush's second Secretary of State wore these knee-highs to Wiesbaden Army Airfield in Germany four years ago, the Washington Post's Robin Givhan daydreamed Rice was a "dominatrix," adding, "Rice's coat and boots speak of sex and power — such a volatile combination, and one that in political circles rarely leads to anything but scandal."

With her many pins (see People spread at left) and her occasional Stetson hat, Madeleine Albright was perhaps more practical than Rice, but no less pioneering. Wrote People, "the Czech-born Albright, 61, has brought new panache to power dressing, winning praise for her colorful, well-tailored suits and bold brooches."

(Pics from top to bottom: AFP/Getty Images; Associated Press; People)

The Secretary of State ended up with "an emerald and diamond necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings," reports AP — and that was before the end of January.

The box for those gifts was valued at $5,000.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah upgraded Rice from emeralds to rubies, and threw in a bracelet and ring. $165,000 in loot for one trip!

Of course it's just our own oil money, coming back to us. Uselessly, since it will sit in a General Services Administration warehouse, because no one gets to keep the gifts under federal law. What a hilarious way to waste money!

Rice made the best of it, though: She "forgot" until now to disclose a "$170,000 flower petal motif necklace," received from Abdullah in 2005. Ha.

Man, how much must being the queen suck? Everyone's all, "listen to my demo, your majesty!" "I'm working on a screenplay about a queen that I'd love your notes on, your majesty!" Gah.

Condi told Congress last month that the Bush administration was "initially uneasy about a controversial CIA plan for interrogating top al-Qaeda suspects." She says she asked someone to look into whether the torturing was legal or not. But the CIA remembers it differently.

The repeated requests for a paper trail reflected growing worries within the CIA that the administration might later distance itself from key decisions about the handling of captured al-Qaeda leaders, former intelligence officials said. The concerns grew more pronounced after the revelations of mistreatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and further still as tensions grew between the administration and its intelligence advisers over the conduct of the Iraq war.

"It came up in the daily meetings. We heard it from our field officers," said a former senior intelligence official familiar with the events. "We were already worried that we" were going to be blamed.

A. John Radsan, a lawyer in the CIA general counsel's office until 2004, remembered the discussions but did not personally view the memos the agency received in response to its concerns. "The question was whether we had enough 'top cover,' " Radsan said.

Hah. This is still the very important role of the Washington Post, by the way: the media battleground on which inter-agency government PR and blame battles are fought.

Go read the story. Even as CIA CYA, it's more interesting than another bullshit horse race campaign story.

CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos [WP]

Have you ever experimented with a woman?
Yes, I had my rite of passage. I was 16, and I wasn’t really in control of the situation, if you know what I mean. It was much more about a male fantasy of seeing two women together. But I loved the girl a lot; she was one of my closest friends. I think falling in love is actually more about falling in love with an individual. We’re all potentially bisexual; it all depends on your circle, your upbringing, and all kinds of things. Or maybe I’m just talking about myself. I could’ve easily fallen in love with a woman over a man. My husband Ol’s kind of a man-woman. Look, I once loved Tim Curry, so there you go.

Upon reading Newton's interview, Oliver Stone immediately scheduled reshoots for an elaborate lesbian dream sequence to accompany George W. Bush's 2002 preztel-choking incident. "Laura, Condi, why don't you root out each other's infidels. No, I'm just gonna hang back. I'm the Decider."

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Big Gay Following [The Advocate]

Everyone is covering their asses now that the Senate Armed Services is looking into just who decided to give the CIA authorization to torture the fuck out of people, but Condi released some documents blaming John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld for everything. Except of course that she was in the same goddamn room and her proud stand against the program was to ask Ashcroft to personally review the legal documents that Bush lawyers used to justify violating the Geneva Conventions.

REMEMBER HOW OUR PRESIDENT VIOLATES THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS?? LIKE, REGULARLY, BECAUSE THAT IS HIS POLICY?? WTF!

Anyway. This is fun. Our CIA actually began kinda torturing people weeks before our executive branch drafted a legal memo authorizing them to kinda torture people! The FBI objected to the torturing and "ultimately withdrew from Mr. Zubaydah’s interrogation." It's funny when the FBI is the voice of reason! Funny in a "why did we all agree that the last 8 years didn't happen" way.

Basically we'd like a 9/11 commission thing, here, to figure out what happened when a bunch of career conservative fuckers and their cherry-picked law school moron lackeys ran the country for eight years and basically blew it up, from the inside. Can John McCain race back to Washington and work on that?

Via ThinkProgress

10. Mark Cuban: The billionaire dot-commer and owner of the Dallas Mavericks actually gets a lot of attention for his real blog.

9. Al Sharpton: A site called News Groper started running celeb blogs last year; Sharpton's is one of the few funny ones.

8. Tom Cruise: A shame this one hasn't resurfaced this year.

7. Darth Vader: The jokes are too geeky, but this is one of Twitter's most-followed accounts.

6. Nick Denton: The fake blog of Gawker's publisher, dirty and full of in-jokes and totes written by a former Gawker editor.

5. Rosie O'Donnell: No wait, it's real, I just keep forgetting when "ro" posts things like:

effective monday march 17th 35 years 2 the day my mom left the governor goes thru the whore door

4. Condoleezza Rice: Most jokes on this fake Twitter account are about White House personal politics: "Stuck in traffic on Pennsylvania Ave and guess who pulls up next to me. Colin in his Avalanche! AWKWARD!"

3. Harriet Miers: The Supreme Court nominee blogged like a 13-year-old girl. Fake Harriet kept posting photos of Real Harriet to throw the ludicrous style into sharp relief.

2. There is no #2, because nothing deserves to come close to #1.

1. Steve Jobs: The only consistently great parody blogger, Fake Steve Jobs is more entertaining than real Steve would ever be. Better yet, the Fake Steve book isn't just a rehash of the blog.

Click to expand the image.

None of this would matter much if Mabry's subject were merely a departing secretary of state. But it's plain, even from the jacket photo of a 9-year-old Rice posing outside the White House, that this is a book about a woman who just might become president. She certainly has the right profile for it: moderate on abortion and gay rights, firm on guns, a Californian, Rice could someday be the Schwarzenegger Republican the party is looking for. There is no doubt that she has the self-discipline and confidence. She has already come so far; who would bet against her going farther?

What's that? All of them? Oh.

Madame Secretary [NYT]

This was the scene at the White House yesterday, as President Bush celebrated Black History Month by honoring subway hero Wesley Autrey, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, and... uh, a bunch of baseball players. Yay progress!

BUSH FETES SUBWAY HERO [NYP] [Image: AP]

In comments overheard on an open microphone between morning television interviews, including one with Fox, the top U.S. diplomat said: "My Fox guys, I love every single one of them." But Rice told an aide that when she was next in Iraq she would like to do a "one-on-one" interview with CBS "The Early Show" anchor Harry Smith."He's a decent guy. I know they are like 55 in the ratings, but I like him," Rice said in comments monitored by Reuters on a television feed.

Rice loves Fox tv, sees CBS anchor as "decent guy" [Reuters]

Of course they could have mentioned that she was only wearing the helmet to protect her spectacular 'do, but that wouldn't fit in with their insidious liberal bias, would it?

Rice, in Baghdad, Insists That Iraqis Are 'Making Progress' [NYT]

QUESTION: And we - this paper has kept some of your secrets for you, too.

SECRETARY RICE: I understand that and I appreciate that. But I think that when it comes to - you know, I'm speaking to the leaks problem. I know this is a major, major issue in the journalistic community. But I can tell you from the point of view of somebody who has to (inaudible) security (inaudible), it's a problem.

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New York Times Keepin' Secrets For Condi [Wonkette]
[Photo: Getty Images]

After that, she went over to VH1's Best Week Ever, where she used her comic stylings to address the rumors that Nicole Richie's waistline has actually increased since September 11, 2001.

White House, Rice Downplay Report That Iraq War Has Made Terrorism Worse [MTV]

Other Times headlindes:

• Jan. 23, 2006: "In a Stronghold, Fatah Fights To Beat Back a Rising Hamas"

• Jan. 13, 2006: "Anger in the West Bank Helps Hamas Win Hearts"

• Dec. 17, 2005: "Hamas Surges In West Bank; Blow to Fatah"

• Oct. 1, 2005: "Israel Kills 2 In Arrest Raid; Hamas Gains In Elections"

• Aug. 21, 2005: "Hamas Pushing For Lead Role In a New Gaza"

• July 4, 2005: "Palestinian Leader Invites Hamas to Join 'Unity Government'"

• Dec. 25, 2004: "Hamas Surprisingly Strong in Palestinian Election"

It's amazing the things you can learn if you read the newspaper.

Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength [NYT]

At the State Department's daily briefing yesterday morning, before the New York incident, spokesman Sean McCormack responded to a journalist who asked whether Rice was involved with hurricane relief efforts by saying, "She's in contact with the department as appropriate." He made no mention that his boss had any plans to leave New York.

But yesterday afternoon, Rice had done just that. Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore told us: "The secretary is back in Washington, and she is being briefed on the situation." Moore did not know whether Condi had planned a longer stay here.

So does this mean Madam Secretary won't be spending today in that big corporate suite at the U.S. Open? Whatever. We've shitkicked yet another person from NYC; Ann Curry, we're coming for you next.

As South Drowns, Rice Soaks in NY [R&M]
Previously: Condi in NYC

Secret service is all over Seventh Avenue. That fucking worthless bitch is shopping in showrooms right now.

Whoa, such language! And how could anyone just assume that our leaders have anything other than the best intentions? We actually have it on good authority that Condi's snapping up the best of the Spring 2006 collections and sending the fripperies directly to the Red Cross.

Earlier:Condi Rice Spends Salary on Shoes
Hurricane Coverage

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we've confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo's Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice's timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!" Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American, and we'll go shoe shopping with you anytime.

Previously: Hurricane Coverage