On the one hand, I can hardly believe we actually have an African American woman as Secretary of State – you sort of have to stand back a minute and let that sink in, purely from a race and gender perspective. I mean, holy cow. But then, everything has a context and this particular context is pretty bad. I won’t go into the obvious stuff about Condoleeza Rice’s track record on Iraq. But I did want to call attention to the senate vote on her confirmation. At 85 For and 13 Against, this was the largest “no” vote against a Secretary of State since 1825, and the second largest in U.S. history.
You can read the article here if you want. Interestingly, the closely-watched Barack Obama voted “yes” in one of his first actions as a new senator, as did Hillary Clinton (no big surprise there I guess).
Here are the twelve Democrats and one Independent who voted against Rice’s confirmation:
Akaka (D-HI)
Bayh (D-IN)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Dayton (D-MN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
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