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Posted on 11/17/2004 6:34:48 AM PST by OXENinFLA
AMBASSADOR ALBRIGHT: Mr. President, I am deeply honored by your decision to nominate me for Secretary of State. During the past four years, under your leadership and that of Vice President Gore, we have had a skilled and successful foreign policy team. I am confident, as I look at my colleagues today, that you have assembled a first-rate team for the next four.
To Secretary Christopher, I want to express my gratitude on behalf of all of us who have worked with you for your steady nerves, prudent judgment and great wisdom. I can only hope that my heels can fill your shoes. (Laughter.)
I am also pleased beyond measure that President Clinton has asked, with my enthusiastic support, that my close friend, Strobe Talbott, stay on as Deputy Secretary. And I've asked him to begin work immediately as head of my transition team.
To my daughters, Alice, Katie and Anne, who is here, all I can say is that all your lives I've worried about where you were and what you were up to. Now you will have the chance to worry about me. (Laughter.)
To my colleagues in the Department of State, I hope I can communicate even a small measure of the excitement and determination that I feel. Together with the men and women of our Armed Forces -- the finest military in the world -- we have a job to do: to defend American interest, maintain key alliances, forge new friendships and ensure for the American people a future of steadily increasing prosperity and steadily decreasing danger.
To America's friends and allies abroad, I say that the future depends on our keeping our commitments to each other. We live in an era without power blocks in which old assumptions must be reexamined, institutions modernized and relationships transformed.
If we are to master events rather than be mastered by them, we must be forward looking in our thinking and flexible in our tactics. But we need not and must not diverge from the core values of democracy and respect for human dignity that have long guided our nation and made American leadership not only possible, but welcome in so many parts of the world.
To members of Congress, I offer an open door and open communications. As someone who has worked on Capitol Hill, I understand that the task of defending the expenditure of dollars overseas is not an easy one, especially now when the Cold War is over and nuclear weapons no longer target our homes. But if American leadership is to continue, we must always make the effort to explain clearly the who, what, when, how and especially the whys of U.S. foreign policy, and we must commit the resources needed to meet our fair share of obligations and responsibility.
Finally, to President Clinton, I say again, thank you. As you have said, I was not born in this country. Because of my parents' love of democracy, we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia, first by Hitler and then by Stalin. Because of this nation's kindness, we were granted political asylum, and I have had the opportunity to live my life among the most generous and courageous people on Earth.
The story of my family has been repeated in millions of variations over two centuries in the lives no only of immigrants, but of those overseas who have been liberated or sheltered by American soldiers, empowered by American assistance, or inspired by American ideals. As the history of this century and the story of my life bear witness, the United States is, as the President has said, truly the world's indispensable nation. It is our shared task, with the help of friends from around the globe and of God, to uphold this proud standard in the years immediately ahead and into the next century.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
DR. RICE: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for you these past four years, in times of crisis, decision and opportunity for our nation. Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror. You have marshaled great coalitions that have liberated millions from tyranny, coalitions that are now helping the Iraqi and Afghan people build democracies in the heart of the Muslim world. And you have worked to widen the circle of prosperity and progress in every corner of the world.
I look forward, with the consent of the Senate, to pursuing your hopeful and ambitious agenda as Secretary of State. Mr. President, it is an honor to be asked to serve your administration and my country once again.
And it is humbling to imagine succeeding my dear friend and mentor, Colin Powell. He is one of the finest public servants our nation has ever produced. Colin Powell has been a great and inspirational Secretary of State. It was my honor to serve alongside him, and he will be missed.
It will, of course, be hard to leave the White House, and especially to leave behind the terrific NSC staff who have served their President and their country so ably in this most challenging of times. Yet, I can leave confident in the knowledge that they will be led by the consummate professional, a man I know and admire, my colleague and friend, Steve Hadley.
Finally, let me say that in my 25 years of experience in foreign affairs, both in and out of government, I have come to know the men and women of the Department of State. I have the utmost admiration and respect for their skill, their professionalism and their dedication. If I am confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to working with the great people of the Foreign Service and the Civil Service. And one of my highest priorities as Secretary will be to ensure that they have all the tools necessary to carry American diplomacy forward in the 21st century.
Mr. President, thank you again for this great opportunity, and for your continued confidence in me.
I figured some other FReepers might like to read both so I tracked them down and here they are.
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CLASSY
Mr. President, it is an honor to be asked to serve your administration and my country once again.
OXEN, did you by any chance hear the really nasty things Savage was saying about Dr. Rice yesterday? It was disgusting, demeaning and scandalous, IMO. I think he's lost me forever now.
What? What did he say? :(
I stopped listening to Savage about a year ago.
He was saying that she is totally unqualified for the job, she should go back to teaching school, blah blah blah. I couldn't listen to very much of it, it made me that angry.
He was playing the tape of this speech and screeching about how she didn't say anything, it was a prepared speech, etc. I'm done with him now.
I don't listen to Michael Savage and, if this is his attempt at wisdom, I see I missed nothing.
He's jealous *LOL* Jealousy is such a terrible thing. Ugliness goes to the bone, and his case quite literally I might add.
I listened to Savage for just a few minutes last night and was wondering what he was smoking. Trashing such a fine American as Condi Rice was way out of line. Seems Mr. Savage is just trying to be another "shock jock".
Rice and Albright ...Secretaries of State.....It's just like a fairy tale
Beauty and THE BEAST (that ate Washington and both coasts)
Rice first studied international relations under Joseph Korbel at the University of Denver.
Joseph Korbel was Madeline Albright's father.
http://www.rider.edu/phanc/Phanc/JoKorbel.htm
What was the basis of his argument? Had he even READ her CV? Oh, wait. I'm asking for a rational answer. Never mind.
Something must be awry in the ratings book!
i finished albrights; book a while ago. she actually met and liked Condi Rice - until she found out that rice was a republican!
Albright sounds like she did a Hally Barry accepting an Oscar.
And in a month he will be praising her as the greatest Sec of State in American history. Then if something happens the Savage doesn't like (or understand) he'll go back to telling us how he was the first to trash Rice.
I enjoy listening to Savage in the evening if I'm doing woodworking or reloading ammo but consistency is not one of his virtues.
Thanks for going through the trouble to research this. Actually, the speech by the hapless Madeline Halfbright was pretty good, with the one exception of thinking that "our homes were no longer targeted."
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