Hillary Clinton Confirmation 2009

Details to come, but the Senate just confirmed Hillary Rodham Clinton as the next secretary of state by a 94-2 vote. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) put a hold on her nomination yesterday but didn’t vote against her. The dissenters were Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

Kate’s last post about Eric Holder brings up something that struck me kind of funny, as Bruce Springsteen would say.
Notwithstanding Holder’s language about whether we’ve been at war since before 9/11, Kate tells me she hasn’t heard Holder use the phrase “war on terror” or “war on terrorism” in his hearing. Neither did Hillary Rodham [...]

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nomination to become secretary of state has cleared its most important hurdle. This morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed her, 16-1, in a vote to send her bid to become America’s top diplomat to the full Senate. The holdout was Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). No word on whether he cast his [...]

As long as we’re talking about the right way forward in Afghanistan, take a look at the pool report from Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s return from his South Asia trip. There’s not a whole lot in here, but the stuff that’s in here is, at the least, pungent:
[Biden] said there is going to be “a [...]

Though Clinton declined to give her specific thoughts on several controversial issues the picture that emerged from her eight-hour hearing was that of an energetic and progressive secretary of state prepared to reassert her department’s role in U.S. foreign policy.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) talks about getting full disclosure for the Clinton Foundation’s donors. “That’s correct, Senator,” Clinton reiterates. Menendez knows the game. “What I would hate to see,” he says, “is anyone to put in doubt … two extraordinary public servants’ ability to do their job. The Clinton Global Initiative has made a real [...]

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), drawing the hearing to a conclusion, remembers being with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2005, and hearing about how he was expected to disarm Hamas when Hamas was more capable than his Fatah Party and much of the Palestinian Authority. “We have to recognize the threat that Hamas may become more [...]

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) takes another bite at the Afghanistan apple. He says he doesn’t want to compare anything to Vietnam, but he’s worried Afghanistan is too close a parallel: “The night often rules, with insurgencies. The complications are profound in Pakistan and Afghanistan … That is the center of the war on–” he stops [...]

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) returns, and asks about intelligence warnings of Al Qaeda movement into the chaos of Somalia. “What’s your view on what’s gone wrong on that?”
Clinton: “Somalia is strategically located … the idea that Somalia is just a failed state, somewhere over there, where people are just fighting over Heaven knows what is [...]

Should we lift restrictions on Cuban-American family travel back to Cuba?
Yes, says Clinton. “Cuban-Americans are the best ambassadors for democracy, freedom and a free-market economy,” she says. Letting them travel back to Cuba will refute the Castro-run system, she argues, and will further erode the wheezing communist system. Wow, grown-uppery.