QUOTE
White House Rankled By Rice Delay
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2005
Condi Vote Delayed
\"Some people are practicing what I would call petty politics and that's unfortunate.\"
White House chief of staff Andrew Card
(CBS/AP) The White House is accusing Senate Democrats of \"petty politics\" for delaying Condoleezza Rice's confirmation as the next secretary of state.
Rice cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, `16-2`, and she was hoping to be `sworn-in` to her new post on Inauguration Day. But Democrats are putting off her confirmation vote until the middle of next week, citing the desire of some senators not on the Foreign Relations Committee to question her.
On Thursday, White House chief of staff Andrew Card told CBS News' The Early Show that \"some people are practicing what I would call petty politics and that's unfortunate.\"
Still he said he has no doubt that \"she will be confirmed and she should be confirmed quickly.\"
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said Democrats would not seek to prevent Rice's confirmation, although several were expected to vote against her. The vote by the full Senate is expected next Wednesday, he said.
\"There are a number of Democrats not on the [Foreign Relations] committee that want to have a chance to debate her nomination a couple of hours,\" said Manley.
At Wednesday's daylong hearing on Capitol Hill, Democrats pressed Rice on whether the administration's reasons for going to war were misleading.
She acknowledged that \"there were some bad decisions\" by the administration, but 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.
But Sen. Barbara Boxer would not be shaken off, even after Rice acknowledged \"bad decisions.\"
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.
Sen. Joseph Biden, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, 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.
The Senate developments unfolded as the outgoing secretary of state, Colin Powell, bid farewell to the workers he called his \"family\" at the State Department. Powell has resigned but intends to remain on the job until Rice is sworn in to succeed him.
\"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.
In other `confirmation-hearing` news:
Alberto Gonzales will have to wait a little longer before a Senate committee votes on his nomination to become attorney general.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked for a `one-week` hold on the vote. They complain Gonzales hasn't answered all of their questions about the war on terror.
Senator Edward Kennedy said Democrats must insist on answers to what he calls \"fundamental questions,\" in order to uphold the constitutional responsibility of the confirmation process.
Gonzales served as President Bush's lawyer during his first term. If confirmed as attorney general, he would replace John Ashcroft - becoming the first Hispanic to serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg acknowledged Wednesday that he placed a hold on Margaret Spellings' nomination to be education secretary but agreed to lift it after she promised to review the promotional tactics that have put the Education Department under fire.
At issue is the agency's hiring of a public relations firm, including paying for advertising and access with a prominent media pundit, to promote Bush's education law.
\"I made clear to Ms. Spellings that these propaganda efforts at the Department of Education must stop,\" Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, told The Associated Press.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is reviewing whether the department's public relations spending has violated a federal ban on propaganda.
Mike Leavitt, President Bush's nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that changes are needed in Medicaid and that he hopes \"to see them occur as quickly as they can.\"
The former Utah governor's comment, on day two of Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination to run one of the largest departments in the federal government, may fuel speculation that the administration plans deep cuts in the Medicaid program, the `federal-state` health program serving 50 million poor and working poor.
As Leavitt testified before the Senate Finance Committee, more than a dozen governors in town for Mr. Bush's second inauguration met to discuss their opposition to any federal reforms that would cut Medicaid spending or shift costs to the states, which are now spending more on Medicaid than on `K-12` education.
Two committee members warned against turning Medicaid into a block grant program, under which states would receive large chunks of money to provide health care for their poorest citizens.
\"I think it would be a mistake to go down that road,\" said Sen. Olympia Snowe, `R-Maine`.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2005
Condi Vote Delayed
\"Some people are practicing what I would call petty politics and that's unfortunate.\"
White House chief of staff Andrew Card
(CBS/AP) The White House is accusing Senate Democrats of \"petty politics\" for delaying Condoleezza Rice's confirmation as the next secretary of state.
Rice cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, `16-2`, and she was hoping to be `sworn-in` to her new post on Inauguration Day. But Democrats are putting off her confirmation vote until the middle of next week, citing the desire of some senators not on the Foreign Relations Committee to question her.
On Thursday, White House chief of staff Andrew Card told CBS News' The Early Show that \"some people are practicing what I would call petty politics and that's unfortunate.\"
Still he said he has no doubt that \"she will be confirmed and she should be confirmed quickly.\"
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said Democrats would not seek to prevent Rice's confirmation, although several were expected to vote against her. The vote by the full Senate is expected next Wednesday, he said.
\"There are a number of Democrats not on the [Foreign Relations] committee that want to have a chance to debate her nomination a couple of hours,\" said Manley.
At Wednesday's daylong hearing on Capitol Hill, Democrats pressed Rice on whether the administration's reasons for going to war were misleading.
She acknowledged that \"there were some bad decisions\" by the administration, but 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.
But Sen. Barbara Boxer would not be shaken off, even after Rice acknowledged \"bad decisions.\"
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.
Sen. Joseph Biden, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, 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.
The Senate developments unfolded as the outgoing secretary of state, Colin Powell, bid farewell to the workers he called his \"family\" at the State Department. Powell has resigned but intends to remain on the job until Rice is sworn in to succeed him.
\"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.
In other `confirmation-hearing` news:
Alberto Gonzales will have to wait a little longer before a Senate committee votes on his nomination to become attorney general.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked for a `one-week` hold on the vote. They complain Gonzales hasn't answered all of their questions about the war on terror.
Senator Edward Kennedy said Democrats must insist on answers to what he calls \"fundamental questions,\" in order to uphold the constitutional responsibility of the confirmation process.
Gonzales served as President Bush's lawyer during his first term. If confirmed as attorney general, he would replace John Ashcroft - becoming the first Hispanic to serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg acknowledged Wednesday that he placed a hold on Margaret Spellings' nomination to be education secretary but agreed to lift it after she promised to review the promotional tactics that have put the Education Department under fire.
At issue is the agency's hiring of a public relations firm, including paying for advertising and access with a prominent media pundit, to promote Bush's education law.
\"I made clear to Ms. Spellings that these propaganda efforts at the Department of Education must stop,\" Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, told The Associated Press.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is reviewing whether the department's public relations spending has violated a federal ban on propaganda.
Mike Leavitt, President Bush's nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that changes are needed in Medicaid and that he hopes \"to see them occur as quickly as they can.\"
The former Utah governor's comment, on day two of Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination to run one of the largest departments in the federal government, may fuel speculation that the administration plans deep cuts in the Medicaid program, the `federal-state` health program serving 50 million poor and working poor.
As Leavitt testified before the Senate Finance Committee, more than a dozen governors in town for Mr. Bush's second inauguration met to discuss their opposition to any federal reforms that would cut Medicaid spending or shift costs to the states, which are now spending more on Medicaid than on `K-12` education.
Two committee members warned against turning Medicaid into a block grant program, under which states would receive large chunks of money to provide health care for their poorest citizens.
\"I think it would be a mistake to go down that road,\" said Sen. Olympia Snowe, `R-Maine`.
