Don't hate her because she's beautiful.

Robin Givhan's description of Condi Rice's clothing when she greeted the troops in Germany reads like a bodice-ripper romance novel, mostly about the boots with the stiletto heels. Where's James Bond when we have a Secretary of State worthy of him?

Givhan sounds like she would love to cover a sex scandal involving Rice, daydreaming about power and sex. I don't really buy this, but it's a lot better than all the cartoons a week or two ago depicting her as Bush's house slave, a parrot with Mammy lips, and all the worst minstrel-show stereotypes of blacks we've spent the past 50 years trying to get rid of. I hope there are millions of little black girls watching her and thinking of possibilities for themselves. She could be for them what Nichelle Nichols was for many young girls in the 1960s. I wish Americans of African descent would remember that George W. Bush made that possible. Maybe what Rice should represent, as well, is a reminder that blacks are not house n----rs for the Democrats.

Ann Althouse's take is not only better written than the piece she's commenting on, but much more mature. But you know, we never saw commentary like this about other black women with power.