Rice had 'good laugh' reading MacKay stories
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay order at a Tim Horton's coffee shop in rural Pictou, Nova Scotia on Tuesday. (CP / Andrew Vaughan)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay stroll on the waterfront in Pictou, Nova Scotia on Tuesday. (CP / Andrew Vaughan)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is escorted by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay as she visits Halifax, Nova Scotia on Monday, Sept. 11, 2006. (CP / Andrew Vaughan)
Updated: Wed. Sep. 13 2006 11:19 PM ET
WASHINGTON — It doesn't take much when you're the U.S. secretary of state, you're a woman and you're single.
Condoleezza Rice spent some time this week with Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay in his Nova Scotia riding. And there they were on the front page of the New York Times on Wednesday, clasping hands in greeting.
The article, with the teaser headline "Dance of Diplomacy,'' gently mocks the twitter of the gossip mill and "baseless speculation'' about a blossoming romantic relationship.
But the story took care to note that MacKay is "the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic circuit'' with "the build of someone who spends his time on the rugby field.''
And it placed at least some of the blame on the two politicians for offering up tantalizing tidbits like the fact that Rice loved the cool Atlantic breeze and kept her window open at night.
Plus she kept calling him Peter.
"She had a good laugh when she read it,'' said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
"Look, she has a good working relationship, professional relationship, with Foreign Minister MacKay and a lot of her counterparts,'' he told a briefing.
"And she was really honoured to go up to Canada on Sept. 11th and to thank the Canadian people.''
Yet some say a potential high-powered union between the two may well become a hit topic in the United States, however briefly.
"I first saw the headline online and thought it came from some gossip column,'' said Howard Kurtz, who writes about the media for the Washington Post.
"This will probably wind up getting more attention that a year's worth of U.S. policy toward Canada, which tends to be an invisible subject.''
A U.S. online gambling company was even reportedly considering offering odds on whether the two would get together.
One American journalist who routinely covers Rice for a U.S. newspaper was kicking himself for not making the trip north, saying it was the kind of amusing offbeat story that doesn't often get told in the staid world of diplomacy.
"Condoleezza Rice would be considered an extremely eligible catch, as MacKay is obviously.''
Rice gets this a lot.
Her rumoured matches lately have included Massimo D'Alema, Italy's foreign minister, and her former British counterpart Jack Straw.
There were breathless accounts in April of Rice giving her pullout bed on her plane to Straw during a surprise trip to Baghdad.
But she hasn't been the only top American diplomat to attract widespread speculation about her personal life.
It was always a huge deal whenever Henry Kissinger dated.
The difference between the two, said one former State Department official under Colin Powell, is that Kissinger revelled in the attention. But that's something he could afford to do as a man, he quickly added.
"It's an extraordinary double standard. That's an understatement of the highest order. They never talked about the way Powell dressed, for instance,'' he said.
"She's an elegant lady and she can't hide it. She's extraordinarily charming and engaging. But she's all business.''
Besides, Rice sees MacKay a lot on the international circuit, at G8 and NATO meetings, and it makes sense for her to forge a close professional bond.
Having informal dinners with foreign ministers is nothing new for Rice, he said, and neither is calling her colleagues by their first names.
And you could hardly call the Rice-MacKay repast at the Pictou Lodge Resort private with 14 aides and six security guards present.
"It's pretty goofy I think,'' said MacKay's brother Andy, who lives near New Glasgow.
"I heard it on CTV News. But I don't know. I wouldn't describe him as smitten with her.''
MacKay has suffered his own share of personal intrusion, something he seemed to invite after he broke up with Liberal MP Belinda Stronach. And blogs have been saying for months that he's taken with Rice.
To be fair, he did a lot to attract that kind of attention by heaping superlatives on her at their joint news conference in Washington in April, confessing to be a "fan.''
And some think neither can be too upset about the inferences.
"This kind of humanizing coverage never hurts a politician,'' said Trudie Richards, chair of the public relations department at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.
"I believe that the public relations fixers for both of those people were entirely aware that the media would take friendly-friendly and push it to possible romance.''
Not according to MacKay spokesman Dan Dugas, who seemed exasperated by all the attention.
"It takes away from the important work they're doing,'' he said. "There are two foreign ministers and they happen to be single.''
Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council, couldn't agree more.
"I don't want to dignify daydreaming in the press,'' she said. "I want to know whether they talked about the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (requiring passports from Canadians). Not what they ate, wore or the small talk.''
McCormack, for one, said all the speculation doesn't hurt Rice's ability to be taken seriously. But some observers had concerns.
Rosemary Speirs, chair of Equal Voice, a non-profit group that promotes electing women, said the media coverage of their visit has a "flirtatious'' tone.
"I don't think that serves women well. It makes them look slightly less serious. This is a powerful figure in American politics, Ms. Rice is, but it made her sound a bit girlish,'' Speirs said in Toronto.
"I think this is a relatively mild case compared to the hazing that Belinda Stronach went through, or some of the things that occurred around Sheila Copps. But I think it's one of the things that turns women off politics.''
And Vicki Hesli, a politics professor at the University of Iowa, said Rice has been less a target of stereotypes than other high-profile women in politics like Senator Hillary Clinton.
"Rice is more of a figurehead and people realize she is not an autonomous decision-maker,'' said Hesli.
"Clinton has the potentional to wield real power and this makes people who see women as emotional, rather than as rational beings, particularly uncomfortable.''
If anything, said U.S. political analyst Chris Sands, it says something about the Canadian psyche.
"I think most Canadians want to see a relationship, one that says we're all just people and we can get along and one's not walking the Earth as a titan and the other a mouse.''
The Rice-MacKay meeting, he said, seemed to signal the two want to meet regularly and not just hold crisis summits over the latest snafu.
"It's pulling the weeds out when they're small. That's a real achievement for the relationship.''
