But, this being modern times, there was also her Walkman and an extensive range of advisers and consultants, including a psychotherapist, an aromatherapist, a reflexologist and an astrologer.
Alisa Harrison, the department's press secretary, said Secretary Veneman set policy by consulting a wide range of advisers and interest groups.
To help prepare, Mr. Rumsfeld was consulting with a range of trusted outside advisers, including his former chief spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke.
We asked a range of top financial advisers and expert investors for their recommendations for funds that deliver an income, as well as products that can grow your money over the long term.
At one end of the debate is Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and, presumably, a range of Mr. Obama's political advisers, who opposed the surge in 2009 and want a rapid exit, keeping in place a force focused on counterterrorism and training.
"We are working together with our allies and partners and with the Chinese leadership to develop a range of options," national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on ABC's "This Week" program.
That debate pitted the nation's top military officers, along with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who sought a heavy troop presence for a prolonged period, against a range of the president's political advisers, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mr. Emanuel.
"We also believe that the process of deciding the state pension age should be informed by independent advisers considering a range of factors.
When news surfaced of the criminal record of Norman Hsu, a Democratic fund-raiser, Mrs. Clinton's advisers suggested a range of responses, including defending him, keeping the money he had raised for her campaign, or returning it.
During the presidential transition, Clinton administration officials told Bush foreign policy advisers of a range of options they had drawn up to deal with the problem, but said they were leaving them for the new team to deal with.
