Rice-Gonzales

Rice was just confirmed as SoS by a vote of 85-13. She is the first Secretary of State nominee since 1981 to receive any nay votes and only the 8th since 1789 to receive votes against her nomination.

In other cabinet news, Chucky apparently had a change of heart. All 8 Dems on the Senate Judiciary voted against Gonzales, and he passed through on a party line vote, 10-8.

While I applaud the Dems' strategy of raising the issue of Iraq by debating the Rice and Gonzales nominations, I wish they had decided on this a bit sooner. It appears contradictory to be talking in November and December about "smooth sailing" for Bush's cabinet nominees, and then, come January, to take a more combative approach.

By contrast, the "there is no crisis" strategy with regards to Bush's plans for social security has been timely and on-point and looks like real Democratic Party conviction that can't be easily dismissed as blatant political opportunism.