POLITICS: Senate Confirms Rice As Secretary of State, page 1

In an 85 to 13 vote, the U.S. Senate has confirmed Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. She is to be sworn in at the White House tonight. Several prominent Democrats voted against the confirmation including Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry.

story.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice won easy confirmation Wednesday to be President Bush's new secretary of state, despite strong dissent from a small group of Democrats who said she shares blame for mistakes and war deaths in Iraq.

The Senate voted 85 to 13 to confirm Rice, who succeeds Colin Powell as America's top diplomat and becomes the first black woman to hold the job.

Plans were made for her to be sworn in at the White House Wednesday night, take her place in the State Department Thursday morning and have a more elaborate swearing-in by Bush at the agency on Friday.

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Rice will have some big shoes to fill. Colin Powell was both popular abroad and at home and Will respected. Rice, will have to show both leadership and convince people and the world that she is more than a rubber stamp neo-con. From the Korean situation, Israel and the Palestinians, Iran, Afghanistan, and the ongoing Iraq war, there are many pots simmering and it be be her job to keep them from boiling over.