As national security adviser during Bush's first term, Rice drew fire for giving speeches around the country in crucial battleground states shortly before the 2004 election, a practice none of her predecessors had done. The White House at the time noted that Bush had directed the secretaries of state and defense to avoid getting enmeshed in the presidential campaign. But the White House defended Rice's speeches, saying "part of the job today of national security adviser is to discuss our nation's national security policy."

During her confirmation hearings for the current job, Rice was asked in written questions about her speeches during the 2004 presidential campaign and was asked to confirm she would abstain from activity that might be construed as partisan. "If confirmed as secretary of state, I intend to continue the tradition in that position of not actively participating in public campaign or political events," Rice wrote back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Colin L. Powell and Madeleine K. Albright, Rice's immediate predecessors, made only infrequent appearances in the media in the two weeks before elections, according to the listing of their interviews on the State Department Web site.

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In the 2002 midterm elections, Powell did just two spots -- with National Public Radio and Ellen Ratner, who says she is "liberal and proud," on Talk Radio News. In 2004, Powell appeared only on Bennett's show and CNBC. Albright, who frequently said she had her "partisan instincts surgically removed" when she became secretary, did a couple of interviews on network television before the 2000 elections and none before the 1998 elections.

"The tradition for secretaries of state has been to stay out of partisan politics and to stay above the fray," said Karl F. Inderfurth, director of the international affairs graduate program at George Washington University and assistant secretary of state under Albright. "They take office as the secretary of state of the United States of America, not of the Republican or Democratic party."

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