Condi Rice for VP talk persists despite denials

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says repeatedly she does not "do politics" but her name keeps popping up as a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate.

Rice's spokesman tried yet again on Monday to quash reports that Rice wants the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket but blogs and political Web sites are still buzzing.

"I don't know how many ways she can say no," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack of reports that Rice is actively campaigning to join the Arizona senator's ticket.

"She has got to finish up her work as secretary of state and then head back out West ... to go to Stanford. Remember, she is still a tenured professor at Stanford and only on leave from Stanford. She fully intends to go back," he added.

On Sunday, Dan Senor, a Republican strategist and former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority that governed Iraq after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, said Rice was courting conservatives for the job.

"Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this," Senor told ABC's "This Week" program.

Rice fueled speculation when she attended a meeting at the end of March with conservatives from an anti-tax lobbying group run by conservative activist Grover Norquist.

Rice's staff forcefully rejected the idea that she attended the Americans for Tax Reform meeting as a way to advertise her interest in the vice presidential job, saying she went to discuss foreign policy.

Rice reiterated her lack of interest in an interview with The Washington Times last month.

"I don't do politics," she told the newspaper, repeating that she planned to return to her California home when the Bush administration ends in January 2009.

DIPPING INTO DOMESTIC POLICY

Despite her claims of disinterest, Rice has been dipping more frequently into domestic politics and showing a lighter side, such as sharing her exercising tips with Fitness magazine and doing an interview with Parade magazine.

With the Washington Times, Rice aired her thoughts on education and race in the United States, which has emerged as a prominent issue in the presidential campaign because of Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama.

Obama would be the first black U.S. president if he wins the Democratic nomination and beats McCain in the November election to succeed President George W. Bush.

Rice is the top-ranking African-American and woman in Bush's cabinet and some political experts see her as a way to balance out the Republican Party ticket, which will face either a black man, if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, or a woman, if Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York prevails.