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Kansas City, MO — While some Washington politicos were buzzing Sunday about the possibility that Condoleezza Rice is actively campaigning for a vice presidential slot, Sen. McCain said any push by the Secretary of State is news to him.

“I did not hear that. I missed those signals,” McCain said aboard his campaign plane Sunday during a flight to Kansas City. “I think she’s a great American, I think there’s very little that I can say that isn’t anything but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world…I think her overall record is really very, very meritorious.”

While he praised Rice, McCain also noted that he believes she bears some responsibility for the early failures in Iraq–along with President Bush, Don Rumsfeld and Colin Powell. The latest Rice4VP speculation comes after former administration spokesman Dan Senor said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that Rice has been campaigning for a VP slot–even speaking to a meeting of economic conservative leaders including Grover Norquist.

Given that McCain will either face off against a female or African-American Democratic rival, VP tea leaf readers are debating what role gender or race may play in McCain’s selection. But the presumptive GOP nominee made clear Sunday that he is not quite there yet–still focused on the big picture.

“That’s a consideration that you might…take into consideration if you were anywhere along in the process. We’re not in any point in the process…but I think that Americans overall want the most highly qualified person to serve anywhere in government,” McCain said, when asked if he would be comfortable with two white men heading up the GOP ticket.

After McCain told the Don Imus radio show last Wednesday morning that he was starting to compile a list of potential running mates, his aides have attempted to reign him in regarding any VP talk and McCain downplayed most of the running mate questions today.

“We’re not talking about the process because it just then gets into things that could easily to spill over into an invasion of privacy,” he said at one point. Asked later about Mitt Romney as a potential VP, McCain reiterated, “we are just not talking about it. When you mention somebody’s name as being favorably mentioned or somebody else then all of a sudden it really can unfortunately result in invasion of privacy so were just not really talking about it. But I understand the curiosity but I think there is a very large number of very highly qualified people and we are not in any point where we would say ‘this person is more favored than another’ and to protect everybodys privacy, I don’t think we would ever say that.”

But McCain did chime in on the anti-Romney4VP advertising campaign launched by some former Huckabee supporters, joking that he could “save them some money if they’d just e-mail me. But if they want to make that statement through a paid political advertisement, that’s certainly their right.”