President Bush has made an excellent choice in nominating Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be America's next Secretary of State.

But perhaps we should think more about strategies for extending freedom and democracy in the world other than nation building.

How many American lives are we willing to sacrifice to do this?

How we ourselves live would then become our most persuasive claim to real leadership in a world filled with people hungry to know how to live their lives.

Of course we will never say that only some men are created equal, that only some children will not be left behind or that we will pay only some price to defend freedom.

Our initial war in Iraq was a stunning success.

But is it possible that too much nation building runs the risk of extending too far the vision of the city on a hill?

The single thing that would help me, and I believe other committee members the most, is if we could agree on some sort of report card about what the benchmarks are.

I do think that one of the Senate's, the Congress's under utilized great powers is the oversight responsibility.

I think it's fair to say both Senator Feingold and I look forward to working with you, supporting you, and we look forward to developing those benchmarks.

Well, thank you, Senator Feingold. Those are important questions.

Mr. Ambassador, we thank you for coming. We thank you for your work.

The natural gas pipeline is not just an Alaskan concern, it is an American concern so far as I believe.

would one solution just be to give it all to the Department of Labor?

Mr. Card, I would like to look to the future a little bit.

If it is impractical, I think it would help us if we were told that and told, instead of doing this, let us do that.

Thanks for having the hearing and thanks for your leadership and that of Senators Grassley and Murkowski on this issue.

We need to do a better job of teaching just what those values are.