Class Personified

There have been some rumblings in the blogosphere concerning a theoretical match-up in the '08 presidential race pitting Senator Hillary Clinton against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In the "wishful thinking department", if this were to take the form of a steel cage wrestling match, I think it would be safe to say it would be the highest-grossing pay-per-view event of all time.

I have no doubt the senator from New York would end up on the losing side of this match-up, regardless of the format of the competition. The bottom line is this: Dr. Rice has more class in her discarded fingernail clippings than Hillary Clinton will ever be able to muster up in her body, mind, and soul, combined.

Case in point:

WASHINGTON - A musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took to the Kennedy Center concert stage Saturday to accompany a young soprano battling an often-fatal disease.

Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago.

The soprano is a granddaughter of Rep. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., and his wife Annette, who Rice has known for years. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association, formed in 1990, presented the concert to draw attention to the disease from which more than 100,000 people are known to suffer.

I rest my case.