Storms

It is one thing to have a limited political goal and to				. . . So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women
fight decisively for it; it is quite another to apply				are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is
military force incrementally, hoping to find a political				enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we
solution somewhere along the way. A president				were surprised.
entering these situations must ask whether decisive				What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the
force is possible and is likely to be effective and				Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza [sic] Rice was
must know how and when to get out.				seen spending several thousands of dollars on some
Condoleezza Rice				nice, new shoes (we've confirmed this, so her new
Foreign Affairs				heels will surely get coverage from the [Washington
January/February 2000				Post's] Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to
Condoleezza Rice had been working flat out since				fathom the absurdity of Rice's timing, went up to the
becoming secretary of state in January, delaying her				Secretary and reportedly shouted, "How dare you
vacation until the last days of August. The president				shop for shoes while thousands are dying and
had been on his vacation for weeks. In fact, Bush				homeless!" Never one to have her fashion choices
was on the way to setting a presidential record,				questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE
surpassing Ronald Reagan for time spent away from				the woman.
Washington. When her holiday finally came, Rice				Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are
embraced it with the same intensity she brought to				a true American, and we'll go shoe shopping with you
her job. Escaping from work was one of the ways				anytime.
she maintained balance -- like her daily workouts, her				On Friday, the New York Daily News would report
sessions with her chamber music group, and her				that Spamalot audience members had booed Rice
Sunday calls to friends and family.				when the lights came up. Then, the paper would ask,
She left Washington for her vacation in New York on				"Did New Yorkers chase Condoleezza Rice back to
Wednesday, August 31. That afternoon she hit some				Washington yesterday?"
balls with Monica Seles, and that night she took in the				Rice says that no one chased her anywhere: "On
sold-out Monty Python musical, Spamalot, on				Thursday morning I got up, I had breakfast, and I
Broadway. On Thursday morning she indulged her				went down to Ferragamo. I came back. Things had
shoe obsession, shopping at Ferragamo on Fifth				gotten pretty bad, and plus I learned that the State
Avenue. While Rice was out, her communications				Department had a problem; our New Orleans
chief, Jim Wilkinson, back in his room at the Palace				Passport Center was down. And . . . the pictures
Hotel at Fifth and Madison, came across an item on				were really ugly. I called the president and I said, 'I
the Drudge Report:				think I should come back.'"
Eyewitness: Sec of State Condi Rice laughs it up at				Rice insists the alleged encounter with the angry
'Spamalot' while Gulf Coast lays [sic] in tatters.				woman at Ferragamo never happened. "Absolutely
Theatergoers in New York City's Great White Way				not . . . this stuff just gets out there."
were shocked to see the President's former National				And in a country outraged by the tragedy unfolding
Security Adviser at the Monty Python farce last night				in New Orleans, the tale of the angry shopper did get
-- as the rest of the cabinet responds to Hurricane				out there. And -- like CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's
Katrina . . .				verbal lashing of Senator Mary Landrieu for politicians'
Wilkinson's heart sank. The thirtysomething aide was				diddling while rats ate dead bodies in the streets --
so attentive to Rice's image that before she gave				shot around the Internet. Later director Spike Lee
speeches in drab hotel conference rooms abroad, he				would try to find the irate Ferragamo shopper,
fussed with the backdrop and podium to make sure				unsuccessfully. But in Lee's searing 2006
the pictures would show what the city she was in.				documentary, When the Levees Broke, African
And it was Wilkinson who stage-managed her airport				American social commentator Michael Eric Dyson took
arrivals to make them look presidential. It was no				Rice to task: "While people were drowning in New
secret that he hoped Rice would run for president				Orleans, she was going up and down Madison
some day. And now this. Hurricane Katrina had made				Avenue buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to
landfall early Monday morning. Initially, weather				see Spamalot!"
forecasters thought New Orleans had dodged a				Dyson muddled Ferragamo's address and the
bullet; when the storm hit sixty-five miles southeast				chronology of Rice's holiday, but he captured the
of the city, it had been downgraded to a Category				sense of anger, even betrayal, that many African
Three hurricane from a potentially cataclysmic				Americans felt toward the administration in general
Category Five. But by 8 a.m. on Monday, one of the				and Condoleezza in particular in the days after
city's central canals had been breached. The nearby				Katrina.
Lower Ninth Ward, largely black and poor, was under				The criticism took Rice by surprise. "These are not
six to eight feet of water, and soon eighty percent				my accounts," she protested to Chip Blacker,
of New Orleans was flooded. Mayor Ray Nagin				referring to domestic issues.
reported "significant" loss of life; bodies could be seen				"I was watching on the news what was going on
floating in the floodwater. Looting erupted.				with Katrina. I wasn't getting the reports of what the
Fifteen to twenty thousand residents took shelter in				hurricane was going to do or anything like that," says
the Superdome, which was a designated "refuge of				Rice. "And so I responded like the secretary of state,
last resort." Another nearly twenty thousand				which is [to] worry about the foreign contributions,
crowded into the Convention Center, even though it				worry about the [New Orleans] passport center. But
wasn't a designated shelter and had no food or				it was less than twenty-four hours before I realized it
water. On Tuesday morning, Louisiana governor				was time to get back.
Kathleen Blanco ordered the evacuation of the city,				"Look, I'd be the first to say I learned something
but no transportation was available to move anyone.				from that. I thought of myself as secretary of state;
By Wednesday, when Rice left for her vacation, the				my responsibility is foreign policy. I didn't think about
media was reporting that thousands were dead in				my role as a visible African American national figure. I
New Orleans, and television screens filled with the				just didn't think about it."
images of the survivors. They were almost all African				That Rice hadn't realized that she had a role to play
American, their eyes desperate, many carrying babies				as a black leader was a result of how she saw the
and what possessions they could grab as the waters				world. John and Angelena's efforts to invest their
rose. Reporters who had covered the Third World				daughter with a limitless sense of possibility, to make
compared the scenes to refugee crises they had				her unconquerable, had made her both less confined
seen.				by race and less conscious of it.
By Thursday, the situation had gotten even worse.				By the time Rice returned to Washington on
Every hour, the cable news channels showed a dead				Thursday afternoon, President Bush was facing a
woman in a wheelchair outside the Convention				public furor of his own, centered around the photo
Center, covered with a sheet, under the now clear				the White House had released of Bush peering out
skies of New Orleans. Despite what Drudge reported,				the window of Air Force One, surveying Katrina's
no one seemed to be responding to Katrina.				damage on his way back to Washington from
Wilkinson -- a native of East Texas, whose family				Crawford. Presumably, the White House intended to
had supported civil rights before it was fashionable				show a concerned commander in chief; instead Bush
for whites to do so -- was concerned enough about				had looked detached and powerless.
the images of African Americans stranded, begging				Watching the disaster coverage in her seventh-floor
for water from camera crews, that he conferred				office at the State Department, Rice decided she
with Rice's other top advisers about whether Condi				had to go home to Alabama to show that the
needed to return to Washington. "That woman				administration cared. An aide phoned the White
needs a vacation," said one of Rice's advisers who				House to clear the trip, but the White House
was also a friend. In fact, all of Rice's staff agreed:				resisted; the president should travel to the gulf first,
She had set travel records jetting around the globe,				and he was planning to go early next week. But
and she deserved her downtime. And besides, she				Rice's office was adamant: The secretary needed to
was secretary of state, not the interior.				be down South "with her people." They reminded the
But within hours, they regretted the decision. The				White House that they had their own planes. The
New York Post's gossip column ran a piece reporting				White House called back three hours later; Rice had
that Rice was working on her backhand with Monica				been cleared to go. The president would go earlier.
Seles. Then the gossip and news Web site Gawker				Copyright Â© 2007 Marcus Mabry from the book
posted a story headlined "Breaking: Condi Rice				Twice as Good by Marcus Mabry Published by
Spends Salary on Shoes."				Modern Times; May 2007;$27.50US/$34.

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Storms