Condi the pragmatist

Anne Applebaum damns Condoleezza Rice with faint praise or praises her with condescension--I can't figure out which.

Don’t expect rigid application of principle. This is not a woman who is going to dump the Saudis because they won’t let women drive, or who will stop talking to the Russians because they nationalise a few television channels. Don’t expect she’ll necessarily keep it up either, if conditions change or if the world is altered once again by an event on the scale of 9/11. If it comes to that, this is not a woman who will be picky about who enters her coalition of the willing either. Call it hypocrisy or call it, well, pragmatism. It’s not that she doesn’t mean what she says, it’s just that she understands everything has its limits. And don’t underestimate how far it will get her.