WASHINGTON -- The Senate overrode Democratic critics of the Iraq war today and handily confirmed Condoleezza Rice, a chief architect of U.S. policy, to be secretary of state. The vote was 85-13.
Rice will move quickly to take charge as the first black woman to hold the job of top U.S. diplomat. A swearing-in was planned for tonight, and she intends to take over Colin Powell's office on Thursday.
The vote against Rice's confirmation was the highest against a nominee for secretary of state at least since World War II. Henry Kissinger was approved 78-7, Dean Acheson 83-6 and Alexander Haig 93-6.
Twelve Democrats and one independent, Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont, opposed Rice's confirmation. Several other Democrats criticized U.S. policy and Rice's role in helping to shape it as President Bush's assistant for national security.
But led by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., they deferred to Bush as having the prerogative to select his Cabinet.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., voted for Rice.
Approval catapults the 50-year-old one-time Stanford academic and analyst of the now-defunct Soviet Union into a post held by such luminaries as Acheson, Kissinger and John Foster Dulles.
She faces an awesome foreign policy agenda, topped by the ongoing U.S. war in Iraq. She has pledged, on another difficult front, to try to promote negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and, in fact, was meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as the Senate neared its approving vote.
Rice also is confronted by the administration's futile diplomatic effort to halt nuclear weapons development in North Korea and Iran, which Bush had included with Iraq in an "axis of evil."
Democrats led by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California blistered Rice at Foreign Relations Committee hearings last week and during Senate debate Tuesday and today as having misled the American public on Saddam Hussein's weapons and shifting ground on the rationale for war.
Republicans, solid in supporting Rice, fired back allegations the Democrats had crossed the line into partisan politics and broken with a tradition of support for presidents in wartime.
The Democrats said mistakes had led to mounting American casualties. As the debate drew to a close, word came from Iraq of the crash of a U.S. military transport helicopter in bad weather, killing at least 30 people in the worst U.S. loss since the war.
Rice's nomination was never in doubt, however. Republicans had hoped to hold the vote last week, on the same day that Bush took the oath for his second term, but Democrats asked for more time. The GOP accused Democrats of inappropriately delaying Rice's confirmation to make political statements about Iraq policy.
"Dr. Rice is an honorable, fine public servant who needs to be confirmed," Bush said during a news conference before the vote. will be a great secretary of state and Dr. Rice and I look forward to moving forward."
He rejected claims by Democrats that they had been misled in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
On the Senate floor today, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested Democrats were sore losers.
"I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion," McCain said. Since Rice is qualified for the job, he said, "I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election."
But Senate Minority Leader Reid defended Democratic critics of Rice after Republicans said the Democrats were using the nomination to make political speeches against President Bush's policies.
The Nevada senator said his colleagues had a legitimate right to raise questions about her record, given that she was nominated to be the top diplomat for the world's leading super power.
"Is it asking too much that we have a 4 1/2-hour debate on the Secretary of State?" Reid said Tuesday. "I think not."
On the Senate floor today, Reid stressed, "It is a matter of fariness that those with concerns about Dr. Rice be allowed to express them."
Ensign praised Rice. "Dr. Rice's life story is truly inspirational, but it is her profound knowledge about global affairs and the depth of her understanding that makes me so confident in her leadership."
What had seemed at the outset to be a cinch turned into sometimes angry debate over Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq, his struggle with a potent insurgency and Rice's role in helping him make a case for overthrowing Saddam.
Some Democrats hoped their dissent would motivate Rice to take a more independent stance on tough U.S. foreign policy issues. One Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, suggested that Rice, as Bush's security adviser, counseled him to take actions he already decided to take.
The Sun's Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
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