William Bradley: “I rise today in support of the nomination of Strobe Talbott to be Deputy Secretary of State. In thinking about the…”

“I rise today in support of the nomination of Strobe Talbott to be Deputy Secretary of State. In thinking about the nominations that come before the Senate for advice and consent, I try to evaluate the nominee against three simple criteria. First, can the nominee work well with his or her new colleagues? That is usually an easy call, and something I do not need to deal with further today. The President and Secretary of State want Strobe Talbott to be Deputy Secretary of State. Enough said. The second criterion is whether the nominee has the background, skills, and intellectual capacity to handle the responsibilities of the new position. Again, there is no question about Strobe Talbott's abilities. Everything he has touched has turned to gold. After compiling a brilliant academic record, he had a distinguished career as a journalist and author. For the past year, Talbott has structured the administration's policy toward Russia and the other former Soviet Republics. While we may not always agree on the specifics of policy, it is clear that Strobe Talbott has demonstrated his ability to make the Government work in his area of responsibility. The third, and last, criterion is what I call the ``sanity test.'' That is, are the nominee's ideas sound. This is a substantive, not a political criterion. It is not based on whether I agree with the nominees ideas. Rather, it is whether the ideas are sufficiently in the mainstream of American political thought.”