Rice given nod of approval by Senate panel

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state after two days of hearings in which she faced strenuous Democratic assaults on the Bush administration's handling of Iraq.

Pending approval by the full Senate, Rice would be the first black woman to hold the job. She was confirmed by a 16-2 vote with Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California voting no.

Other Democrats, including ranking member Joseph Biden of Delaware, had said they were reluctantly voting to elevate Rice to the nation's top diplomatic job. A vote by the full Senate was expected by Thursday.

As the committee voted, Secretary of State Colin Powell bid farewell to his "family" at the State Department.

"You were my troops, you were America's troops," the former Army general said. "You are the carriers of America's values."

He called Rice "a dear friend" and said she would bring "gifted leadership" to the department.

Rice surmounted two days of sometimes contentious questioning — mostly by Democrats — on the administration's prosecution of the war.

At her hearing Wednesday, Rice acknowledged "there were some bad decisions" by the administration on Iraq, as Democrats pressed her on whether the reasons for going to war were misleading.

Rice insisted that Saddam Hussein was a dictator who refused to account for weapons of mass destruction. And it was impossible to change the nature of a terror threat in the Middle East with him leading Iraq, she testified.

Accused by Boxer of "rigidness," Rice responded that as national security adviser she had "no difficulty telling the president what I think."

But she also told the committee not to expect her to reveal any differences with Bush as secretary of state. "I want to be clearly understood — we are one administration, with the president in the lead," she said.

At the same time, though, Rice told the committee "I will tell you what I think. that is a promise I make to you today."

Biden suggested Rice also advise the president "to read a little bit of history" and to inform him that in Iraq "it isn't going that well."

Boxer would not be shaken off, even after Rice acknowledged to the Senate committee that "there were some bad decisions" taken by the administration on Iraq.