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What's cooking, Ms Rice?

Rice's friends say that Condi always had a "thing for bad boys" (read bumbling Texan men with blurred visions) and was "drawn" to President Bush who "courted" her — politically though. So, one has to be a "bad boy" to charm and disarm one of the most powerful women in the White House!

One of Condi's friends is even quoted as saying in the excerpts of the biography posted on a news web site that "he (Bush) really went after her. He's very charming." But her friends also insist in the biography written by a senior Newsweek journalist that what Bush, who is in awe of her intelligence, and Rice actually share is a "platonic" relationship. Rice is also like a "sister" and the President's closeness with his trusted lieutenant grew after 9/11, the biographer writes. Rice is also someone who just "moulded" his (Bush's) instincts and didn't "challenge" his decisions, if we go by the biography.

Her friends, most of whom are apparently Democrats, also assert the her "affection" for the US President blinded her to his faults. "She just can't say no to the man," they say.

Now, what are we really witnessing here? What could possibly be the connotations of such statements? A well-planned PR exercise to counter the relentless tirade against President Bush? And if this is the case, are people really interested to know the more humane side of either Rice or Bush or both? Are we supposed to view them as individuals who made some tragic blunders? Well, it's anybody's guess.

But the excerpts, shedding light on the mystical Bush-Rice bond, might be able to explain why uncharitable remarks had been made against certain people, including Aziz.