Embattled, Scrutinized, Powell Soldiers On

WASHINGTON, July 24 — After a recent meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was kidding around with the secretaries in the national security adviser's White House office, complaining that their pretzel jar was empty. Then he said: "Okay, that's enough. I've got to get back to work now — and by the way, I'm not resigning."

The staff "all took a slight, shallow breath and then broke up," a senior administration official recalled. But the question of Secretary Powell's tenure is no laughing matter in Washington these days.

A string of internal policy differences and defeats — most recently on the Middle East and international family planning — have set off speculation from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom that Secretary Powell might not last through President Bush's term. Tensions with the White House and Pentagon hawks that Secretary Powell has long sought to minimize are no longer possible to disguise.

In public, Secretary Powell, the four-star-general-turned-diplomat, has done what he always does: soldier on, shaping his commander's policies as best he can from within, with some success. In private, Secretary Powell, an amateur automotive mechanic, complains that old friends spend too much time sympathetically taking his temperature — "dip-sticking me," as he puts it.