Posted on 01/26/2005 9:23:45 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) won easy confirmation Wednesday to be President Bush (news - web sites)'s new secretary of state, despite strong dissent from a small group of Democrats who said she shares blame for mistakes and war deaths in Iraq (news - web sites).
The Senate voted 85 to 13 to confirm Rice, who succeeds Colin Powell (news - web sites) as America's top diplomat and becomes the first black woman to hold the job.
Plans were made for her to be sworn in at the White House Wednesday night, take her place in the State Department Thursday morning and have a more elaborate swearing-in by Bush at the agency on Friday.
The Senate vote showed some of the partisanship that delayed Rice's confirmation vote by several days. Twelve Democrats and independent James Jeffords (news - web sites) of Vermont voted against Rice. The Democrats included some of the Senate's best-known members such as Massachusetts Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry (news - web sites), who was the party's presidential candidate in last year's election. Thirty Democrats voted for her.
Democratic foes of her appointment focused mostly on the way Bush and Rice took the United States to war in Iraq and how they have handled the war with insurgents since deposing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
They said mistakes had led to mounting American casualties. As the debate drew to a close, word came from Iraq of the crash of a U.S. military transport helicopter in bad weather, killing at least 30 people in the worst U.S. loss since the war.
Rice's nomination was never in doubt, however. Republicans had hoped to hold the vote last week, on the same day that Bush took the oath for his second term, but Democrats asked for more time. The GOP accused Democrats of inappropriately delaying Rice's confirmation to make political statements about Iraq policy.
Rice, 50, is Bush's trusted national security aide and a main architect of his policies on Iraq and the war on terror.
Although Rice was assured of confirmation, she got the most "no" votes since World War II. Seven senators voted against Henry Kissinger and six each against Dean Acheson and Alexander Haig.
"Dr. Rice is an honorable, fine public servant who needs to be confirmed," Bush said during a news conference Wednesday. "She will be a great secretary of state and Dr. Rice and I look forward to moving forward."
Bush rejected claims by Democrats that they had been lied to in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., suggested Democrats are sore losers. Rice had enough votes to win confirmation, as even her Democratic critics acknowledge, McCain said.
"So I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion," McCain said. Since Rice is qualified for the job, he said, "I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election."
What had seemed at the outset to be a cinch turned into sometimes angry debate over Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq, his struggle with a potent insurgency and Rice's role in helping him make a case for overthrowing Saddam.
An academic who specialized in the study of the now-defunct Soviet Union, she has been one of Bush's closest advisers as his national security adviser for four years. In testimony last week to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she swore she has not been shy about disagreeing with him privately at times.
Now, she will be at his side trying to improve relations with European allies, pursuing a Middle East settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, seeking a way to stop North Korea (news - web sites) and Iran from developing nuclear weapons — and, above all, trying to pacify Iraq with limited additional U.S. casualties.
McCain does this every once in a long while. He fancies himself a statesman.
He is in no way viable as a possible presidential candidate, but he knows Dr. Rice is.
Would she be President Dr. Rice, or Dr. President Rice?
i agree with you that he is a big media hog but it seemed like he was trying to get the issue stopped from both sides. Kerry is his friend and i'm sure he wanted to not bad mouth him.......you wouldn't want to be disloyal to a friend but he did not campaign for anyone but Bush and for that he should get some credit.......I'll bet his voice added some votes from mods along the way.
Racist, mysogynist white folks from mostly the North and Northeast. All them good ole' Southern boys and girls (excepting Byrd [D-KKK]) voted "aye".
*L* Great character (or lack of) summarizations.
I fully agree. If the Dims were smart, they would put Bayh at the head of the ticket in '08. Fortunately, they are not that smart.
Thank you for posting the list. Those who vote foolishly will start being held accountable now that the bloggers can immediately publish their names.
Bayh is deluding himself if he believes that he has a chance in hell of obtaining the Democratic nomination in 2008.
Right, exactly, the primaries. If he can't get the nomination, he can't be elected. Once nominated though...
Problem is, the DNC will engineer a nomination for someone even more MOR, younger, who also has a few more-conservative views on issues right where they are acceptable to the rank and file.
Or, perhaps the DNC will have to build another Frankenstein ticket, as it did in 2000 and 2004. Animatronics at work in both cases.
"beep... beep... beep... beep... beeeeeeeeeeee"
McCain defended Kerry A LOT. He's not just a media hog. He's a RINO. He was absolutely silent about the Dan Rather attack on Bush. These 4 threads are articles where McCain defended Kerry.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1100481/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1186358/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1206457/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1133421/posts
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
John Kerry, D-Mass.
Carl Levin, D-Mich.
James Jeffords, I-Vt.
Jack Reed, D-R.I
Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii
Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa
Richard Durbin, D-Ill.
"I sadly disagree with your assertion that McCain is unelectable as president. He is actually TOO electable and would surely defeat Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008. But McCain would be a ghastly president for conservatives. He would delight in ignoring conservatives. Social conservatives would get nothing. McCain cares nothing for strict construction of the Constitution and couldn't give a hoot about abortion. There would be no tax cuts under a President McCain. And McCain is as bad regarding Third World immigration as Bush is. Expect hyper-inteventionism with McCain as well."
Hey, y'know, I think you're onto something there... McCain might be able to beat Hitlery. I do wonder what will happen in the next few years (particularly next year, when Hitlery has to stand for reelection), and whether she'll even be around then, politically, after another few years of the Great Dying by her cadre of supporters.
OTOH I don't regard current administration policy as "hyper-interventionism".
The Democratic Party is shredding, and we get to watch! :')
Ooooh, I like how you think... :') You've hit it I think... McCain knows at the very least he'll have Condi as Sec'y of State for the next four years or so, and perhaps as a president sometime thereafter. McCain does run a little hot, and his intemperate words toward the Dims, though deserved, are an example of this. When he says something like this about that Party Across the Tracks, we pat his back, but when he says something like this about GWB, or some other Republican or conservative, we forget that he's just got the blarney. Uh, assuming that, well, anyway...
He probably thinks he has a Target on his back.
Ditto!!! It is a great day!
I believe you but he was defending a friend....he didn't say the swiftboat vets were wrong as much as he said he believed Kerry,and wanted the Vietnam stuff stopped.......hell, that is the same stuff Bush said on the issue so I guess Bush is a RINO too....I just think the term is thrown out too emotionally.....you haven'st looked at his track record.......I think of RINO's as Spector, Chaffee, Snow and such.......their views are way more liberal than McCain's
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