Rice tops Most Powerful list
Posted: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:38 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Libby Leist
You know it's summer in Washington when the State Department briefing includes questions on GQ Magazine and its new "50 Most Powerful People in D.C." list.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was listed as the No. 1 most powerful person in Washington, as judged by think tankers, journalists and Congressional staffers.
And while Rice's spokesman dismissed the list as GQ's attempt to sell magazines, he was also quick to remind reporters that the diplomats at Foggy Bottom did well.
"I would note, however, that the State Department, out of the top 50, had three people placed on that list," he said smiling.
Aside from Rice, her top aide Nicholas Burns, who handles Iran policy and a host of other issues for her came in at No. 19. And, the U.S. government's Arabic translator Gamal Helal was included at No. 41. If you look at any photo of top-level U.S. meetings with leaders in the Middle East in the last decade and a half, he is sure to be somewhere in it.
The list, which also includes NBC's own Tim Russert at No. 14, is expected to be on newsstands in Washington on Thursday.
**** UPDATE **** GQ says not to let "Russert’s charm fool you; the seat across from his on Meet the Press is one of the most dangerous in town."
DNC Chairman Howard Dean gives his suggestions for surviving Meet the Press.
Per GQ: "Prepare like crazy. The week before a show, Dean’s team of researchers spend hours ripping through the papers, trying to guess which issue areas Russert will quiz him on and which articles he’ll quote from at length. They’ll also dig through the DNC’s own opposition file to see where Dean contradicted himself over the years. Dean’s closest advisers will then take that information and bombard him with questions in two separate one-hour sessions. 'They try to get me mad,' Dean says, 'which is always a good thing, because I can’t do that on television.'
"Last-second training. Dean and his team will wake up especially early Sunday morning to scan the major dailies and the wires. Then Dean goes over the three note cards (winnowed down from fifteen) he takes onto the set that contain the talking points he and his advisers feel he must hit."
