In the August 7 edition of Time magazine, White House correspondent Mike Allen penned an article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that included only the impressions of “Bush aides,” “Bush-family aides,” and her “friends.” Allen's largely favorable profile quoted no criticism of Rice from Democrats, progressives, or foreign policy experts.

The article -- headlined “It's the Condi Rice Show” -- noted that Rice “has won generally glowing marks for a record that includes offering the first substantive talks with Iran in 27 years” and reported that, according to her friends, she is “thriving in her higher-profile role” as secretary of state. Further, Allen devoted an entire paragraph to the optimistic predictions regarding her possible future political career:

She worked on the National Security Council of President George H.W. Bush, and some Bush-family aides say Rice's election as the first black and first woman President could be one of the clan's greatest legacies. Although no national race appears to be in the offing for 2008, friends hope she will eventually run statewide in California. Rice's staff recognizes that the speculation about her political future may be useful, and has overhauled the optics of the job to give her coverage greater pizazz. In Washington she appears with world leaders in front of a fireplace that could be in the Oval Office. Abroad, she is photographed stepping from a plane with an almost presidential wave, a shot that [former Secretary of State] Colin Powell's staff rarely facilitated. “The time for diplomacy is now,” she said at her confirmation hearing. It was a message not only to the world but also to parts of the Administration that had thwarted Powell.

In two instances in the article, Allen referred to the criticism Rice has received over the course of the current crisis in the Middle East. He reported the goal of her recent diplomatic efforts “is grander than the instant results demanded by her critics,” but he did not elaborate on the nature or source of this criticism. Instead, Allen went on to note that Rice “says she is after nothing less than a changed Middle East” and quoted White House press secretary Tony Snow backing up her approach:

Rice announced before heading off to Israel and Lebanon last week that she was not after “a temporary solution,” much to the consternation of Arab and European allies of the U.S. The New York Times ran a vivid front-page photo of Rice, eyes closed, holding her head as if in despair. In fact, she was wiping off perspiration that was pouring down her forehead in a broiling conference room in Rome. (The hall normally seats about 100 people but was packed with 1,000; firefighters showed up to remove doors to cool the place down.) Her goal is grander than the instant results demanded by her critics. She says she is after nothing less than a changed Middle East, which requires more than a cease-fire that could quickly be breached. As White House press secretary Tony Snow put it, the objective is to “create the conditions so that you not only have the piece of paper, you have the peace.”

While Allen did not quote any independent criticism of Rice, he did note some consternation among her colleagues in the Bush administration, reporting that “some Bush aides were miffed” with her decision to travel to Israel and Lebanon “on what they sarcastically called the 'Condi Rice Show' without a clearly attainable goal.”

But the criticism of Rice in recent weeks is far wider-ranging than that depicted in Allen's article. Foreign policy experts from Democratic administrations such as Zbigniew Brzezinski -- former national security adviser to President Carter -- have assailed Rice's failure to engage in talks with Syria and Iran. “That's not diplomacy,” Brzezinski was quoted as saying in a July 23 Los Angeles Times article. Former Bush administration officials such as Richard Armitage -- deputy secretary of state during Bush's first term -- have also noted that Rice has not used “all the levers” in her diplomatic efforts. In a July 26 interview on National Public Radio, Armitage said, “We get a little lazy, I think, when we spend all our time as diplomats talking to our friends and not to our enemies.” More broadly, conservatives such as American Enterprise Institute fellow Richard Perle and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) have strongly criticized her approach to dealing with North Korea and Iran.

Media Matters for America previously noted that Allen and world editor Ramesh Ratnesar published an article in the July 17 edition of Time similarly glossing over the criticism surrounding Rice's central efforts in promoting Bush's foreign policy agenda and, in particular, her role in selling the Iraq war to the American people.