Bush Taps Rice As Top Diplomat

President Bush announced Tuesday he was nominating Condoleezza Rice, his most trusted foreign policy adviser, to replace warrior-turned-diplomat Colin Powell as secretary of state.

"The secretary of state is America's face to the world and in Dr. Rice the world will see the strength, grace and decency of our country," Mr. Bush said of his national security adviser at the White House.

He thanked Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national security adviser, for working "tirelessly and selflessly" on behalf of the country.

The president also announced that Rice will be replaced as national security adviser by her deputy, Stephen Hadley.

Rice's nomination is another move in a significant Cabinet shuffle that has included the exit not only of Powell, the administration's most prominent moderate, but also the resignation of Attorney General John Ashcroft, one of the administration's most outspoken conservatives.

Mr. Bush is set to name his domestic policy chief as his second-term education secretary tomorrow.

Margaret Spellings is a former school board lobbyist from Texas who helped fashion the president's signature education effort, the No Child Left Behind Act. Administration officials say Bush will name her to replace Rod Paige, who resigned on Monday.

Rice, who is considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than Powell, has been Mr. Bush's national security adviser for four years. But while she's known around the globe, her image on the world stage does not rival Powell's. The retired four-star general has higher popularity ratings than the president.

"Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror," Rice said to her boss during the Roosevelt Room announcement. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first black woman secretary of state.

Rice, raised in the segregated South, is an accomplished pianist and Russian scholar who Mr. Bush said was "taught that human dignity is a gift of God and that the ideals of America would overcome oppression."

Mr. Bush asked the Senate for quick confirmation. "The nation needs her," he said.

Besides Powell and Ashcroft, Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Venemen and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham have also resigned as Mr. Bush sought a fresh start for a second term.

Administration officials say Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson may be next. Officials close to Ridge say he may be willing to stay for a few months and advisers to Thompson hint that he may be open to another Cabinet post.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, a close ally of Powell's, has also submitted his letter of resignation, CBS News Correspondent Charles Wolfson reports.

A senior official at State said Armitage will leave when Powell does.

Rice, 50, worked at the National Security Council in former President Bush's White House and went on to be provost of Stanford University in California before working in the current president's 2000 campaign. She was widely considered the president's first choice for the top diplomat's job, despite reports that she intended to return to California or was hoping to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

There had been some speculation that Powell, 67, would stay on, at least for part of a second Bush term, but he told reporters Monday that he had made no offer to do so.

Known for his moderate views and unblemished reputation, Powell went before the United Nations in February 2003 to sell the president's argument for invading Iraq to skeptics abroad and at home. But Powell's case was built on faulty intelligence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Still, both at home and abroad, Powell has been far more popular than the policies he defended. His public approval ratings among Americans have been extraordinarily high and Powell was always welcomed warmly on his many travels abroad.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, declined to answer questions about whether Mr. Bush asked Powell to step down, or tried to persuade him to stay.

Ivo Daalder, who served on President Clinton's National Security Council, suspects Powell was nudged out the door. "It was a surprise," he said. "He had been telling people that he wanted to stay."

Rumsfeld, traveling in Ecuador on Monday, told reporters he had not yet discussed his future with the president and would provide no hint as to whether he would continue in the Cabinet, either for months or through the second term.

Besides Rice, Mr. Bush already picked White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to replace Ashcroft. Margaret Spellings, Mr. Bush's domestic policy adviser, is on the short list to replace Paige as education secretary.