Maybe it's a bit much to ask an airhead, academic neocon to be a good administrator. Whatever you think of the fairness to Condoleezza Rice, people inside the State Department and out are furious at her for her poor management.
Rice is under fire from inside and outside the State Department for a range of crises that are largely managerial in nature -- the failure to monitor private security guards in Iraq, the delays in opening the huge U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad and the resistance of some Foreign Service officers to being forced to serve there. Over the summer, the department also fell woefully short in processing passport applications, resulting in ruined vacation plans for many Americans.
Within the department, Rice is viewed by many rank-and-file employees as an aloof manager who relies on a tight circle of aides, leaving her out of touch with the rest of the staff, in contrast to her predecessor, Colin L. Powell, a retired Army general who won praise from workers for treating them as though they were his "troops."
Congress is on her case, too. Henry Waxman has publicly declared her "indifferent to management." The more you look at her performance, the more dismal it gets.
