CONDI SEALS CONFIRMATION

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted 16-2 to confirm Condi-lies-a Rice as Secretary of State. The nays were cast by Barbara Boxer and John Kerry.

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.
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John Kerry, who made Bush's management of postwar Iraq an issue in his losing presidential campaign, told Rice Tuesday that "the current policy is growing the insurgency and not diminishing it."

"This was never going to be easy," Rice said in response. "There were going to be ups and downs."

She said that after the Iraqis have voted on Jan. 30 for a transitional assembly, the Bush administration would conduct a review.

"We need to be patient," she told Kerry.

Well, that's just another example of administration lying, isn't it? "This was never going to be easy?" If they thought that, why did they tell the American people it would be a "cakewalk"? These hearings made it perfectly clear that the administration still has no viable exit plan, not even a hint of one. "Conduct a review?" A little late, isn't it? By all means, review away, but if the strategy doesn't change, what's the point? There isn't enough patience in the world to turn this situation around under the current leadership.

Also, notice that Condi refuses to discuss torture or rule out waterboarding, sexual humiliation, etc.. I loved what Biden said to her about "just talk to John McCain for a few minutes about what HE thinks about it."

I guess the "ups" for her were Bush's "Mission Accomplished" thriller on the aircraft carrier, killing Uday and Qusay, and nabbing Saddam. For the rest of us, this whole debacle has been one big downer.

I'm going to have to learn more about Barbara Boxer. She's been a "lone reed" of courage lately, first in challenging the Ohio vote and now this. That's my kinda woman.