UM, WHO EXACTLY, MS. GEARAN?

Anne Gearan, an AP Diplomatic Writer, makes this surprising claim:

Rice, then Bush's White House national security adviser, is often portrayed as a go-between or neutral broker before the war, keeping her opinions to herself while managing the differing prewar views among Bush's advisers.

I'm unaware that Rice was portrayed that way by anyone and certainly not "often." Paul O'Neill and James Risen certainly didn't think so. Larry Wilkerson and Richard Armitage thought Rice was a cause of the dysfunction in our national security apparatus, not a "neutral broker."