by a vote of 16-2. Of course, dissenting votes were cast by Boxer and Kerry. Rice put Boxer in her place though…nothing like a good tongue lashing by Rice to Boxer’s personal views. Kerry couldn’t vote for the nomination either since he’s toying with the idea of running again.
She’ll breeze the full Senate vote and be approved prior to the swearing in ceremony…
A solid choice for Sec State. Hated to see Powell go though…
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/19/rice.confirmation/index.html
“Girlfriend you ever dis me in front of my peeps like that again and I’ll Biatch-slap you all the way back to SanFran” - said while maintaining a perfect smile of course…
Ms Boxer promptly wets panties…
over hearing above conversation, Mr Kerry starts having flash-backs of the last time Tur-a-zauuh laid the smackdown on his candy ass, and immediately “goes to his happy place”
good one…
Yeah, “impugn my integrity” is always a good defense to take when someone points out your OUTRIGHT, BALDFACED LIES.
Unfortunately the dems are still playing games.
Democrats to Delay Rice Confirmation Vote
Jan 19, 4:41 PM (ET)
By BARRY SCHWEID
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats intend to delay Condoleezza Rice’s confirmation as secretary of state at least until next week rather than grant her Inauguration Day approval, a spokesman said Wednesday.
“There are a number of Democrats not on the committee that want to have a chance to debate her nomination a couple of hours,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
He said Democrats would not seek to prevent Rice’s confirmation as the nation’s top diplomat, and he predicted her approval within a matter of days. Rice cleared the Foreign Relations Committee earlier in the day, 16-2, a lopsided vote that belied hours of skeptical questioning by Democrats critical of President Bush’s foreign policy and his conduct of the war in Iraq.
By contrast, Manley said he expected that Democrats would assent to confirmation on Thursday just after the inauguration of two members of Bush’s second-term Cabinet. They are Mike Johanns, nominated as secretary of agriculture, and Margaret Spellings, named to take over as education secretary.
(AP) National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, left, talks to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Wednesday,…
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The Senate developments unfolded as the nation’s outgoing top diplomat, Secretary of State Colin Powell, bid farewell to the workers he called his “family” at the State Department. Powell has not yet formally resigned his post, and isn’t expected to do so until Rice is formally sworn in.
“You were my troops, you were America’s troops,” the former Army general told the workers. “You are the carriers of America’s values.”
He called Rice “a dear friend” and said she would bring “gifted leadership” to the department.
Rice surmounted two days of sometimes contentious questioning - mostly by Democrats - on the administration’s prosecution of the war.
Pending approval by the full Senate, Rice would be the first black woman to hold the job. The committee supported her with Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California voting no.
Other Democrats, including ranking member Joseph Biden of Delaware, had said they were reluctantly voting to elevate Rice to the nation’s top diplomatic job.
At her hearing Wednesday, Rice acknowledged “there were some bad decisions” by the administration on Iraq, as Democrats pressed her on whether the reasons for going to war were misleading.
Rice insisted that Saddam Hussein was a dictator who refused to account for weapons of mass destruction. And it was impossible to change the nature of a terror threat in the Middle East with him leading Iraq, she testified.
Accused by Boxer of “rigidness,” Rice responded that as national security adviser she had “no difficulty telling the president what I think.”
But she also told the committee not to expect her to reveal any differences with Bush as secretary of state. “I want to be clearly understood - we are one administration, with the president in the lead,” she said.
At the same time, though, Rice told the committee “I will tell you what I think. that is a promise I make to you today.”
Biden suggested Rice also advise the president “to read a little bit of history” and to inform him that in Iraq “it isn’t going that well.”
Boxer would not be shaken off, even after Rice acknowledged to the Senate committee that “there were some bad decisions” taken by the administration on Iraq.
She accused Rice of “an unwillingness to give Americans the full story because selling the war was so important to Dr. Rice. That was her job.”
And now, Boxer said, the toll of American dead and wounded is the “direct result” of Bush administration “rigidness” and misstatements.
Biden challenged Rice to acknowledge administration mistakes on Iraq and said he would vote for her confirmation, but only with “some frustration and reservation.”
The Delaware senator, zeroing in on U.S. policy in Iraq as he had during Tuesday’s initial hearing, accused the administration of giving shifting reasons to justify the war to oust Saddam.
Rice had steadfastly refused Tuesday to say when U.S. forces might be withdrawn from Iraq. And on Wednesday, Biden cited various rationales for the war, saying “you danced around it, stuck to the party line.”
He told Rice that acknowledging mistakes - such as the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was poised to use them - should not be considered “a sign of weakness.”
Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., meanwhile, urged Rice to consider reconciliation with Iran, which he said was about as repressive as China was when the Nixon administration approached Beijing for better relations.
But Rice said, “It is really hard to find common ground with a government that thinks Israel should be extinguished,” supports terror groups and is undercutting U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East.
More than 1,365 members of the U.S. military have died since U.S. troops led an invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
But Rice has declined to estimate when even some of the 150,000 U.S. troops may return home.
“I am really reluctant to try to put a timetable on that, because I think the goal is to get the mission accomplished,” she had said Tuesday, “and that means that the Iraqis have to be capable of some things before we lessen our own responsibility,” she said.
**Unfortunately the dems are still playing games. **
Boo hoo for Condi, none of the Dems are fawning over her. She so deserves to be fawned over.
I agree that they’re playing games, though. If they were serious leaders, they’d vote against her.
And the reason why?
I haven’t seen any blinding successes from Condi in the recent past that make me think she’s a good choice for the job. She seems a strange choice for the top diplomatic post. (To be fair, there aren’t many in this administration’s inner circle that wouldn’t seem like a strange choice for that job.)
because she has no integrity?
do you not remember her statements pre 9/11 about Iraq and WMDs?
It’s on the internet for all to see.
It just doesn’t get reported. (though I don’t recall you complaining about that).
Take a look at her bio below. You may not like her (or any Bush appointee) but I think she has the background that justifies her selection as Sec of State.
Dr. Condoleezza Rice Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001.
In June 1999, she completed a six year tenure as Stanford University 's Provost, during which she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. As Provost she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students.
As professor of political science, Dr. Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.
At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions.
From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender – Integrated Training in the Military.
She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula . In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.
Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master’s from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C.
July 2004
**Take a look at her bio below. You may not like her (or any Bush appointee) but I think she has the background that justifies her selection as Sec of State. **
Believe it or not, I’m familiar with her bio.
For one thing, her area of expertise is the Soviet Union. Not exactly a timely skill set.
For another thing, the bio you posted doesn’t make any mention whatsoever of Condi’s performance in her most recent job. I wonder why that is- I would consider it pretty relevant. Don’t you?