Norquist: Condoleezza Rice Would Be ‘Great VP Candidate’

Condoleezza Rice as Republican vice presidential candidate? That’s the question Beltway observers were buzzing about last week after she spoke at a semi-secret gathering of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and talked about race in a Washington Times interview.

When The Hill asked ATR president Grover Norquist about Rice’s chances, he did little to tamp them down. Rice would make a “great vice presidential candidate and a good president,” said Norquist, a key player in President Bush’s 2004 campaign. Norquist then ticked off a number of Rice’s attributes that would appeal to conservatives: “serious, tempermentally level headed, understands free markets, likes guns… a foreign policy person, promoted free trade policies.”

Asked how he knows that Rice, who once described herself as “mildly pro-choice,” leans to the right on domestic policy, Norquist noted that she has worked with Milton Friedman, George Shultz and other conservative stalwarts while at Stanford’s Hoover Institute.

Norquist confirmed that someone at last week’s meeting asked Rice about being a candidate, but he quickly added that she’s not campaigning for any elected post.

For the record, Rice hasn’t declared interest in becoming a candidate. “I have always said that the one thing that I have not seen myself doing is running for elected office,” she told Reuters last month.

And Rice wasn’t the only potential vice president Norquist praised. He said that GOP presidential nominee John McCain can choose from a number of Republicans who support free trade and lower taxes, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, South Dakota Gov. Mark Sanford and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.