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.
Ain't it though? Did you see what Ernest called me? her Excellency Farmfriend. And someone agreed with him. Hard to keep my head up it's getting so big and heavy.
You've just GOT to stop engaging in Self-Amusment! If you don't stop it you'll go blind!! (but we'll let you do it till you need thick glasses for a regular monthly royalty)
Dat's berry, berry gud!!!
Dat Ernesto is berry, berry smart dude!!!
As to Kerry, he DID have a huge impact on the war in Vietnam. Much greater than I think you believe. NOT by what he did in Vietnam, but by what he did here in the states after he got back.
The peacepukes in Berzerkeley and other leftist hotbeds around the nation were just a rag-tag bunch of Communist-incited hippies, who everyone was pretty much ignoring (...hoping they'd just GO AWAY) until Jane Fonda and John Kerry came along. Fonda's name-recognition and Kerry's apparent status as a supposed 'decorated war-hero' finally gave that bunch of losers, and their looney-left, blame-America-First supporters, and their chicken-little message, a bit of credibility with middle-America, not to mention the MEDIA attention, which they had not sucessfully captured before. That was the beginning of the end.
The war in Vietnam was not lost by our military in the jungles of Southeast Asia. It was lost on the streets of America, with people like Kerry and Fonda leading the (enemy) 'troops'. Why else do you think Kerry's picture is actually hung in a place of honor in the 'Viet Cong Hall of Fame' or whatever they call it???
actually I have no problem with what you said but the poeple sometimes mentioned don't oppose the "majority" of the platform.....they really don't.....go look at the records.....the only ones close are Spector, Snow,Chaffee and maybe Collins.....McCain whether you like him or not does not deviate a majority of the time..........but it seems like it cause the media likes to show him more when he is a maverick which I don't deny......my problem is that people take media events only and attach that stigma
More on Bayh's vote against Condi: (if I weren't so lazy, I'd post this)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6871426/
Thanks for the link. Very interesting...including the part about Gonzales heading to confirmation.
Saw Sec. Rice arrive at the State Dept today and address the employees. It was marvelous.
Thanks! I was wondering who the Dumbocrat scumbags were that we need to defeat. I think we can whittle that list down come election time, don't you?
I would think that vote would not help him in the least with regard to any aspirations he has in '08.
Bayh sits on the right side of the DIM party. He actually sells as a fiscal conservative/social moderate in the state of Indiana. While this makes him wildly popular in Hoosierland (even by many Republicans), it does not sell with the activist lefties of the DIM party. These are the folks who choose the DIM nominee for POTUS. A vote against Condi does not hurt him (cause not many people pay ttention) in Indiana, but his opposition helps with the anti-war leftist crowd. This is Bayh's first real movement to the left and may signal a presidential bid. And, if Bayh falls short, Hillary would be wise to put him on the ticket. This would help her in the Midwest. If Indiana had gone DIM in '04, we would be talking about President Kerry today!
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