Hillary Clinton Hearing: Live Updates From Senate (VIDEO)
Sen. Hillary Clinton appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today for a hearing on her nomination as Secretary of State.
Clinton fielded an array of non-contentious, often friendly, questions from Democrats as well as Republicans, signaling the likelihood that she will be confirmed swiftly.
Highlights from the hearing:
The New York Observer points out Iran's prominence in the hearing. Clinton said that when it came to preventing a nuclear Iran, all options are "on the table":
Judging from the order of questions Hillary Clinton received at today's confirmation hearings, it is clear that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee thinks the gravest concern facing the United States is Iran's apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons.
In his first question to Clinton, Kerry asked what carrots and sticks the Obama administration was thinking of with respect to Iran's nuclear program. Clinton said that she couldn't get too specific, because she didn't want to take the country's allies by surprise, but that she would use all of the nation's instruments to keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon.She said she and Obama "have no illusions" that their new administration's effort to engage Iran would yield immediate results and that all options were "on the table." She stressed that the administration would make the case to the world that "a nuclear-armed Iran is in no one's interests."
Read the full text of Clinton's prepared statement here.
Clinton expressed sympathy for Palestinians in her confirmation hearing, a rare and tricky move for American politicians. "The suffering of Palestinian and Israeli civilians," Clinton said, "... must only increase our determination to seek a just and lasing peace agreement."
Questioned on her history of poor management skills, Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she won't actually run the State Department -- deputies will.
"This is to me one of the most important questions," she replied. "I decided to fill a position that had not been filled although it had been created ten years ago, and that was the deputy for resources and management."
As secretary, Clinton said, "you get consumed by the crisis of the moment." Even "with the best intentions to deal with management," she said, the secretary routinely spends her time on more immediate concerns, "on Gaza, or Iran, or on Russia and the Ukraine pipeline."Clinton said she had called on Jack Lew, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, to fill the position. James Steinberg, she said, had agreed to leave the deanship of the Lyndon Baines Johnson public policy school in Austin, Texas, to help manage the department as well.
Addressing her Senate confirmation hearing, Clinton also promised to push for stronger U.S. alliances around the globe.
"We must build a world with more partners and fewer adversaries," said the woman that President-elect Barack Obama took for his administration's leading diplomatic job.
"America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own," Clinton said, "and the world cannot solve them without America."
Borrowing a phrase meant to signal a move away from the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton said, "We must use what has been called `smart power,' the full range of tools at our disposal," she said. "With `smart power,' diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy."
She credited Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with stimulating debate about the role of diplomacy and other civilian institutions' role in fighting the global war on terror, endorsing his call for providing the State Department with more resources and a bigger budget.
She assured the committee that if confirmed, the State Department "will be firing on all cylinders" -- applying pressure when needed and looking for opportunities to advancing U.S. interests.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the committee, said in opening the hearing that he welcomed Clinton's nomination, calling her "extraordinarily capable and smart."
In his opening remarks, Sen. Richard Lugar, the panel's ranking Republican, praised Clinton, calling her "the epitome of a big leaguer" who is fully qualified for the job and whose presence at the State Department could open new opportunities for American diplomacy, including the possibility of improving the United States' image in the world.
But Lugar also raised questions about the issue of Bill Clinton's fundraising work and its relation to her wife's new post. Lugar said that the only way for Clinton to avoid a potential conflict of interest due to her husband's charity is to forswear any new foreign contributions. The Indiana senator said the situation poses a "unique complication" that requires "great care and transparency."
The Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman is liveblogging the hearing.
In remarks prepared for delivery, Clinton promised to use "smart power" and push for more U.S. partnerships around the globe.
"America cannot solve the most pressing problems on our own, and the world cannot solve them without America," she said. "I believe American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted."
Borrowing a phrase meant to signal a move away from the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton said, "We must use what has been called `smart power,' the full range of tools at our disposal. With `smart power,' diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy.
A team of roughly ten advisers helped Clinton prepare for the hearing, from deputy designates Jim Steinberg and Jack Lew, Wendy Sherman, and campaign policy aide Jake Sullivan to her Senate foreign policy staffer, Andrew Shapiro.
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Loading comments… This doesn't mean he did anything wrong, but shouldn't we have cared what investments he was making in Iraq? Might they influenced his decisions or at least created that impression in interested parties? Do you think that he was approached by any such interested parties? Of course, he was - all the time and probably still is - just as Bill Clinton is and George Bush is about to be.
There is everything right with transparency as long as we apply it to everybody equally - and the more the better. This is a unique opportunity to create new expectations of ex-Presidents and White House staffers. They don't retire anymore but often work for many long years. Ex-Pres' stay on the payroll and we protect them, so we should know what they are up to.
I would've hoped more pressure was placed on both sides, to come-up with a ceasefire, so serious talks could begin.
Right now the score is, 1,000 to 20, and we don't even see half-time yet.
I have read no credible reporting that Secretary of State-designate Clinton is "disconsolate" about the UN Ambassadorship being (again) made a Cabinet level post. Do you have a source that cites her discontent with this arrangement?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/cracks-appear-in-obama-fo_n_149486.html
You're right, but keep in mind that ever since Hillary's win in the New Hampshire primary, the Left has mined the right's smears of both Clintons from the nineties, and the obam-media began an all out assault on Bill in order to take down Hillary. And so it continues.
yeah, change you can despise with.
CREEPS
............................. repeated twice along with typing mistakes ..................
A litel pruf reding wud b nis
In light of what the Clintons and others have already done to prove the value of the organization, and make the inner workings as transparent as possible, Lugar and the other republicans going down this path are only making themselves look pathetic. It almost seems as if the old school republicans are hell bent on totally destroying any foundations on which the new bloods could possibly re-build their party. Maybe they can only stand change when they are controlling the agenda ?
All Hillary's deputies are the people who brought us 9/11 by way of the intifada. Now they are going to use "soft" power? I wan't born yesterday.
Biden is now in Afghanistan and Iraq. Biden has never solved anything in his entire life. His existence on the stage is owing entirely to the media worship of serial yapping that come out of Capitol Hill which is mistaken for actual achievement. Obama needs to get Biden out of that area of the world with all due despatch before he does irreversible damage.
This whole hearing is a train wreck in progress.
She demonstrated to all non-bigoted people her massive qualifications for the job.
For those who bash everything Clinton....as Tina Fey says....$uck it.
If you voted for Obama, support him.
If you didn't vote for him, the man is fixing this country for you too.
In either case... help or get out of the way.
Hillary had NOTHING to do with Bill's girlfriends GEESH. You guys just keep blaming her for his transgressions. That's just stupid. When your spouse cheats on you, then it must be YOUR fault? Right...
As for the foundation, read the facts.
This foundation has helped millions of innocent people worldwide.
Hillary made Bill go above and beyond on disclosure...get over it.
Yeah, I know you Clinton haters will never stop. So when she helps all Americans, I expect YOU to go and refuse the help, go over to the Middle East and step on a land mine. After all you don't like her so you must not want her help.
You must be a HIllary wanna be to have your posts contain nothing but garbage that only Ann Coulter cares about.
Jealous?
I told yall she was a great choice for SoS.
.
The Huffington Post/AP First Posted: 02/13/09 05:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 02:00 PM ET