POLITICS: Senate Panel Votes 16-2 to Endorse Rice, page 1

Stating that she would not sugarcoat news given to President Bush as well as welcoming debate on foreign policy, Condoleezza Rice was endorsed by the Senate Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Voting the 16-2, the whole Senate will now need to confirm Rice as Secretary of State. The two votes against rice came from Senators John Kerry, and Barbara Boxer.

story.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) won strong but not unanimous endorsement as secretary of state from a Senate panel Wednesday, assuring skeptical Democrats she welcomed debate about the nation's foreign policy course and wouldn't sugarcoat advice to President Bush (news - web sites).

If confirmed by the full Senate as expected, Rice would be the first black woman to hold the post. Confirmation had been expected as soon as Thursday, but Democrats said they wanted more time, at least until next week.

"We can certainly have, I think, a healthy debate about the course that we should take going forward," Rice said before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-2 to recommend her confirmation.

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I'm not surprised that Kerry or Boxer voted against her endorsement. Boxer, has made her stance clear that anything Bush does no matter how much sense it makes, she will opposed. Kerry? Sour grapes perhaps? Closer to my home, it is traditional that a candidate for such an office ask a Senator of his or her state to sponsor them. In this case being a resident of California, Rice chose the senior Senator Diane Fienstein. Local papers have been mentioning that a bit of tension has developed between Boxer and Fienstien over this. Rice is expected to be confirmed easily.