WASHINGTON — President Bush on Tuesday nominated his most trusted foreign policy advisor, Condoleezza Rice, to be the next secretary of State, a move that signaled a desire to elevate the importance of diplomacy in his second term while raising questions about whether his inner circle would include fewer dissenting voices.
In a distinctly warm and personal speech in the White House, Bush praised Rice for "her sound and steady judgment" during the four years she served as his national security advisor. He said her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, would be her successor.
"The secretary of State is America's face to the world," Bush said. "And in Dr. Rice, the world will see the strength, the grace and the decency of our country."
Rice, 50, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister from Birmingham, Ala., grew up to become a scholar of the Soviet military and senior advisor on the Soviet Union to the first President Bush. She served as provost of Stanford University before signing on as George W. Bush's foreign policy advisor during his 2000 presidential campaign. She has been by his side since.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to work for you these past four years, in times of crisis, decision and opportunity for our nation," Rice told the president during a brief announcement at the White House. "I look forward, with the consent of the Senate, to pursuing your hopeful and ambitious agenda as secretary of State."
If confirmed by the Senate, Rice would step into the job being vacated by Colin L. Powell, whose popularity rivaled that of the president throughout his first term. Powell was the first black to serve as secretary of State; Rice would be the first black woman to do so.
The Senate is expected to confirm her nomination when it convenes a new session in January. Powell will continue to serve as secretary in the interim.
During Bush's first term, Powell was seen as the moderate counterweight to the hard-liners in Bush's inner circle, primarily Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Rice largely stayed out of the fray, styling herself less as a referee between the rival departments and more as a private confidante to the president.
As national security advisor, she did not head a public agency and answered to only one person -- the president -- who clearly has given her job performance high marks.
Outside of the Oval Office, Rice's record as national security advisor was generally seen as mixed.
