Garance Franke-Rutka on Condi Rice: One of the most striking things about Condoleezza Rice's testimony yesterday was the contrast between her self-assured appearance and the picture she sought to portray of herself as a woman too timid to take action without direction instruction and emotional encouragement ...the National Security Advisor repeatedly claimed that she had no affirmative leadership responsibilities during this time and was only obligated to act when others specifically told her to -- a sort of "not my department" kind of excuse. She said on at least four separate occasions that she would have taken some action if only some one had told her to... One wonders how this squares with the breathless accounts we used to hear about how Bush asked Condi to stay quiet in meetings - so that she could advise him about what to do afterwards...