Rice to host HRC tonight
Posted: Monday, December 08, 2008 11:20 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
State Dept.
From NBC’s Libby Leist
Two of the most powerful women in the world will meet for dinner tonight when Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice hosts
Hillary Clinton for dinner at Rice's Watergate apartment, State Department transition sources tell NBC News.
Clinton is also taking part in transition meetings today at the State Department.
*** UPDATE *** Rice and Clinton, once thought to be a dream presidential rivalry, are set to sit down as colleagues to prepare for a smooth handoff of America's foreign policy challenges.
State Department officials say the meeting at Rice's Watergate home will focus on policy issues, management of the State Department bureaucracy and the day-to-day life of the Secretary of State.
Rice set the tone for tonight's dinner, the first face-to-face meeting since Clinton's nomination, yesterday on ABC News.
"I think she's going to be terrific," Rice said.
"Hillary Clinton is somebody of intelligence, and she'll do a great job. She also has what's most important to being Secretary of State, and that is that you love this country and you represent it from a basis of faith in its values," Rice added.
Today, in preparation for her session with Rice, Clinton has been spending the day receiving policy briefings at the State Department.
The policy plate is full: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, North Korea and Middle East peace to name a few.
As for the dinner plate tonight, that is an open question. Secretary Rice told Katie Couric in 2006 that she loves to cook, southern style.
"I make a great fried chicken," she said.
No word yet on the menu or whether Rice will cook.
