In his riveting portrait of the most powerful Secretary of State in recent years, Glenn Kessler paints a revealing portrait of Condoleezza Rice as a woman and as an unstoppable political force. As the first critical examination of her skills as policy-maker, politician and manager, "The Confidante" is packed with startling and previously unreported stories about Rice and her divisive role during one of the most tumultuous foreign-policy periods in U.S. history. Drawing on personal interviews with Rice, an intimacy afforded to Kessler as one of a few reporters travelling with her, Kessler goes inside secret meetings Rice held with foreign leaders and h