SECRETARY RICE: Yes. How are you?

QUESTION: I'm good. Thank you for taking some time.

SECRETARY RICE: Of course.

QUESTION: I'm writing a story about Karen Hughes --

SECRETARY RICE: Wonderful person.

QUESTION: -- for her home-state paper.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes.

QUESTION: I know -- you have known her for a long time. Can you tell me a little bit about how you find her personally to work with?

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, Karen and I first met in the early days of the campaign of Governor Bush and she's just wonderful to work with. First of all, she is very direct. Everybody who knows her knows that she's direct. But she's direct because she's a real problem solver. I've never heard Karen articulate a problem for which she wasn't prepared to articulate a potential solution. She's just got a tremendous strategic sense.

And when we first came to the White House, you know, I did foreign policy, she was doing communications. And it was I think because of Karen that very early on I started to marry up communications with our policy development very early on, recognizing that communicating the message is all part of making the policy work. And she was very good, obviously, at doing that with audiences in the United States. But what surprises me was her tremendous capacity and feel for how to communicate with audiences abroad and that's why when I came to the State Department, I wanted her to head public diplomacy.

QUESTION: How do you think she is perceived by others around the world, especially in the Muslim world because I've seen her in Latin America.

SECRETARY RICE: Yes. Well, I think she's perceived as strong, she's perceived as someone who cares, as someone who has been a voice for the -- for bettering relations between the United States and the Muslim world, recognizing that it's not all the work of the Muslim world to do, but that the United States has (inaudible) in a lot of work to do that. She's been a real advocate for women, real advocate for youth. I think she's viewed favorably.

QUESTION: A lot of her critics and even some of her supporters have told me that her biggest challenge is the fact that, you know, she's working on message and if the goal is improving our image abroad, you really have to affect policy. And I'm trying to get some sense of what her role is in that.

SECRETARY RICE: Karen is one of my closest advisors across the board. And it's very -- she sits in on my morning staff meeting where policy issues come up. I value her insights on policy issues, not just on -- on the communication side. So she's got a voice in those issues.

QUESTION: Okay. And do you have -- do you have any anecdotes about her as far as what you show -- think -- what you might think illustrates her effectiveness as a diplomat?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I heard a story and I can't remember now what country it was in. I want to say Egypt or -- it was in the Middle East -- and she went to meet with a group of young women, I think, kind of college-age girls. And there was a lot of hostility, a lot of really difficult questions, kind of probing questions, even hostile questions. And by all accounts, Karen was able not just to field them -- but field those questions, but to show that she understood why people might be skeptical to take that into account, and I thought it was -- it was really a terrific -- it shows why she's a terrific asset. I also remember when she was in Saudi Arabia and she was asked, "Do you think women ought to drive?"

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: And she said, "Sure."

QUESTION: Right. She seemed to get a lot of flack for saying that as if -- and I talk to her about that as well, about some people thought that she was sort of culturally insensitive, but she says that she was asked to say something about that --

QUESTION: Oh, yes.

SECRETARY RICE: -- by some of the Saudi women.

QUESTION: By the women.

SECRETARY RICE: And, you know, I -- if I had said it, it would have been more difficult for me to say that. But, in fact, I also have watched that become an issue that people actually debate in Saudi Arabia.

QUESTION: Mm-hmm. So you think that she is useful in ways that she fills a role that you can't fill as the top diplomat?

SECRETARY RICE: Right, well, as the person who, you know, has responsibility for fundamentally representing how to put policy interests to the United States and at the level of secretary --

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: -- I think that Karen can very often work on things and say things and bring them back to me, things that people might not be willing to say to me.

QUESTION: Mm-hmm. Okay. Do you expect that this position will continue at the State Department --

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, yes.

QUESTION: -- even after she goes or --

SECRETARY RICE: It has been a position for some time now. But the reason that you -- you know, there have been some good people in it, but Karen has given it a new energy and a new direction, and morale in her organization is very high. I think people would say she really put public diplomacy on the map. People know that it's an integral part of what the State Department does.

QUESTION: Okay.

SECRETARY RICE: She's been a tireless advocate for new programs, for innovative initiatives. Just this morning, she and I introduced Cal Ripken as our --

QUESTION: Right. I saw that.

SECRETARY RICE: -- one of our new special envoys for -- for, you know, for diplomacy, and Michelle Kwan is the other one.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: That was the program that her group developed. She's got these programs on youth education in English. She has just done a lot of very innovative programming.

QUESTION: She says that this is sort of the work of decades, but it seems like you see some progress already?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I do see progress already. I don’t think that there's any doubt that people around -- I watch as people around our embassies, our ambassadors, people who work in our embassies -- understand that public diplomacy isn't something you put off to the side. It's an essential part of what we do.

QUESTION: Mm-hmm.

SECRETARY RICE: And we have to reach people outside of the governmental structures. We have to meet -- reach their populations. We have to reach targeted audiences. We have to reach people who are skeptical of us and people who are our friends. And I know that our ambassadors, for instance, are -- and other people in the embassy, are much more out doing public diplomacy events, and that's Karen's leadership. And so I think she's made a difference, but it is the work of generations. These ideologies of hatred, particularly in the Middle East, took a long time to get going. They're not going to be reversed overnight.

QUESTION: Do you think that the sort of on-the-spot communications is helping you in that regard, especially in the Arab world where you're able to respond more quickly to news reports on Al Jazeera or --

SECRETARY RICE: Well, what's important is that we can respond to the misstatements and to -- in some cases just things will appear that are outright lies. And we do have a rapid response unit that can respond to that. It's also possible -- Karen has this daily kind of guidance that goes out that allows people in areas that might not be directly involved in a policy, to still understand how, when they are encountering people in their country, they can talk about American policy. For instance, if there's a controversial policy in Europe and let's say in missile defense, that issue might -- people who work in Europe know what the policy line is, so they know how to deal with it.

QUESTION: Right.

SECRETARY RICE: But it's something that could come up with the Chinese or it could come up in any part of the world. And this -- Karen's getting this out every day lets people have a way to know how to respond.

QUESTION: Is she uniquely qualified for this role because of her relationship with you and with the President? Does that help her?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I think it -- oh, absolutely. I think it's a very, very important part of what she brings. And she has influence also on, you know, the President's policies and speeches. And yes, I think it's extremely important.

QUESTION: Does she go to him directly or through you?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, she will often said to me, "I'm going to call the President" and I say, "Fine." I mean, they've known each other for years. I'm glad that she can call the President.

QUESTION: Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Do you want to comment on Karl Rove's departure?

SECRETARY RICE: (Laughter.) I'm gonna miss him. He's a good friend, a really good friend and he's been extraordinary. He's a really talented man and he's been totally devoted to the President in these important causes and he's really going to be missed. And I won't have to put up with him racing -- he races the President on who reads the most books. He doesn't bother with me. He knows I'm way behind. (Laughter.) But he's a great, great person.

QUESTION: Thank you so much.

SECRETARY RICE: Okay.

QUESTION: I appreciate it.

SECRETARY RICE: All righty.

QUESTION: Bye-bye.

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