In the span of four years, we’ve gone from Clintonista feminazis and the hapless men they dominated to neocons and the women who love them....

Bush now proposes Condoleezza Rice for secretary of state, a woman whose every public word is uttered with such a noticeably pronounced catch in her voice, like a suppressed sob, that one cannot help flinching whenever she speaks. She finishes Bush’s sentences. He totally trusts her. Why? She was an unimpressive national security advisor so confused about the nature of her position — safeguarding national security and advising the president on this topic — she told Republican National Convention audiences that she “believed” her “job has really been to bring together people around (Bush) who can give him good policy options as he develops an agenda for foreign policy.”

No wonder she completely missed the threat of Al-Qaeda.

Maybe she thought it was a trade delegation.

Rice’s national security advice was so poor it’s a relief Bush promoted her to State rather than Defense, where her inabilities could truly harm the nation. Rice declared US nuclear and intelligence experts had determined that Iraq’s aluminum tubes were for weapons of mass destruction, while keeping silent about the fact that most such experts disagreed with her, and had determined the tubes were likely for a non-nuclear, nonrestricted missile delivery system. She falsely declared Iraq tried to obtain Niger yellowcake uranium. She weirdly accused Iraq of “plagiarism” in its disavowals of possession of weapons of mass destruction, and falsely claimed Clinton’s advisors failed to give her its plan to warn of and thwart Al-Qaeda.

Any man, black or white, might find himself with something less than a brilliant career at the end of the day. But Rice has emerged curiously unscathed. Does Rice’s sex give her a pass?

It shouldn’t. Her puffed credentials — including books co-written by neocon, pro-Israel “true believers” — secured her place in a world that doesn’t want to look too carefully at who Rice really is.

Rice’s talents landed her coveted posts as a Hoover Fellow and lucrative positions on powerful corporate boards. But exactly what are her talents? It can’t be her intellect — Rice’s doctoral dissertation on the Czechoslovakian Army’s Soviet relations, which she broadened into a book, took quite a shredding by academic experts.

Her Republican credentials seem unshakable. “She has always been a Republican,” insists Jonathan Adelman, a University of Denver professor and AIPAC promoter who chaired Rice’s dissertation committee and curiously lists his Rice association not just on his on-line resume but even on posters and websites advertising his pro-Israeli speeches.

But Rice has not “always” been a Republican. Alan Gilbert, another of Rice’s professors at Denver, claims Rice was an enthusiastic liberal Democrat from 1975. So enthusiastic that she supported liberal Democrat Colorado Sen. Gary Hart’s presidential campaigns not once, but twice, in 1984 and 1988. Hart himself recently commented: “She supported me in my presidential effort in 1984. She later said she changed parties in the early ’80s, but I know she was a supporter of mine in ’84.” Indeed, Hart claims Rice was one of his ad-hoc foreign policy advisors, “completing her Ph.D. at the University of Denver at the time.”

So who is Condi? Gilbert claims she’s foremost a performer — a child pianist effortlessly playing Tchaikowsky until the adults stop clapping, which hasn’t happened yet, a beguiling figure skater whirling and twirling and “lost in her own performance.”

Rice believes in the moment and its eternal advantage. If the future looks like Gary Hart, she’s a liberal Democrat. Gilbert says Rice confided that Casper Weinberger, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of defense, was “a foolish man.” If the future looks like Israel, then she’s a devout neocon, talking on the phone, every day, with Dov Weisglass, Sharon’s advisor, calling him “Dubi” and giving him free reign at the White House on his monthly visits where reportedly “they sit together for at least an hour and a half.” Palestinians don’t even get in Condi’s door, Dubi brags. The “Palestinian agenda” is now “frozen…removed from our agenda indefinitely,” Dubi marvels. Life has momentarily rewarded Rice. She has the “dream” foreign policy job, and recently celebrated her birthday at a little “surprise” black-tie soiree thrown at the British Embassy at which Bush was present. Oscar de la Renta sent over a sexy scarlet gown for her to don, like Cinderella at the ball.

Can the dream last another four years? Perhaps it depends on how long the party lasts.

— Sarah Whalen is an expert in Islamic law and taught law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.