Although the American football fanatic is said to have dated the then Denver Broncos star Rick Upchurch while at university, US reporters have found evidence of romantic relationships in her life to be thin on the ground. Rice remains unmarried, although she was reported to have accidentally referred to President George Bush as her "husband" at a Washington dinner party, before quickly correcting herself. Perhaps this isn't too surprising, as she spends so much time in her role as his right-hand woman (a man like Bush, it has been argued, needs to have at least one clever person by his side). Indeed, so personally close is she to Bush that she spends almost every weekend with the president and his wife Laura at Camp David. And it is her closeness and allegiance to Bush over his controversial foreign policy, allied to her enormous political power, which marks her as an obvious target of anti-war campaigners, including the Merseyside Stop The War Coalition, who are planning far-from-welcoming demonstrations for her visit to Liverpool this weekend. She has been one of his key supporters during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is thought to be a main creator of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive action, saying shortly before the war in Iraq: "The United States has always reserved the right to try and diminish or to try to eliminate a threat before it is attacked." After Iraqi officials delivered their declaration regarding weapons of mass destruction to UN inspectors in 2002 (a dossier which they claimed proved the country possessed no illegal weapons), Rice wrote an editorial in the New York Times headed Why We Know Iraq Is Lying. And it was Rice who first used the term "outposts of tyranny" - a descendant of the Bush phrase "axis of evil", used to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea. But Rice's hard line went further - she identified six "outposts": Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma and Belarus, together with Iran and North Korea. She may love to keep fit, look immaculate and add to her wardobe of designer clobber (Armani and Oscar de la Renta, apparently), but I reckon I know why this most driven and powerful of women is still single. No offence, Condi, but I think it might have something to do with a certain four-letter word ... FEAR. Who's afraid of Condoleezza Rice? Millions of men, probably. And I'm sure she scares plenty of women, too. Why I'm bringing Condoleezza to visit your city - by Jack Straw >>>>>>>>>>> | 
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