"He's intellectually forceful without being rhetorically forceful," Gelb said. After listening to what others have to say, Hadley returns to his points, Gelb added. "He's a guy who conveys flexibility without being flexible."
Former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft, for whom Hadley worked in the George H.W. Bush administration, said: "Steve Hadley is one of the world's nicest guys." Scowcroft, who has sometimes been critical of the current president's foreign policy, describes Hadley as smart, a gentleman, "a devotee of the vice president" and "integrity personified."
Mitchell B. Reiss, the former State Department director of policy planning, says Hadley is "a very, very decent guy. Not that he tries to please everyone. Steve has very firm convictions, but he expresses them in a way that doesn't insult those who disagree with him."
Two of Hadley's aides said they had never seen him lose his temper -- or even raise his voice.
"I do not know anybody who does not like Steve Hadley," said Nixon Center President Dmitri K. Simes, a Republican who has been highly critical of the Bush administration's neoconservative policies. "He's very competent. He has his own opinions, but he always was prepared to be fair to the opinions of others."
W. Clark McFadden II said his friend and former tennis partner -- Hadley's tennis game became a casualty of his job -- was so nice that "you tend to go out of your way not to impose on him. People recognize what a load he's carrying, and refrain."
Inside and outside the White House, Hadley has made a point of keeping a low profile.
Until recently, some White House staffers did not even know who he was. Neither did the security team at the tiny airport in Waco, Texas, which last year made Hadley, then deputy national security advisor, take off his shoes for inspection before allowing him to board the plane for the commercial flight home from Bush's ranch.
Hadley is described as deeply religious but in a quiet way.
A few years ago, Hadley became friends with Amy Dickinson -- who now has a syndicated advice column, "Ask Amy" -- when they were both in confirmation classes at the Episcopal church he attended in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood. In contrast to some other Washington power players who were also active in the church, Dickinson said, she had no idea how important Hadley was until she read about his appointment in the newspaper.
