Russ Feingold: “on Tuesday the President announced the nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to be the next U.S.…”

“on Tuesday the President announced the nomination of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to be the next U.S. Secretary of State. I admire Dr. Rice's obvious intellectual gifts and her communication skills. I also believe that the President has the right to appoint Cabinet officers who reflect his ideology and his perspective. Barring serious concerns about a nominee's qualifications or ethical record, and in keeping with Senate practices and precedents, my inclination is to give the President substantial deference in his Cabinet choices. But I am deeply troubled by the signal that this nomination appears to send--a signal suggesting that the modest moderating influence of the State Department over the last 4 years will disappear, and that the next 4 years will be guided even more closely by the voices that shouted loudest in the first term, and that led our country into seriously flawed foreign policies. Our country cannot afford to continue down the foreign policy path that was forged during the first term of the Bush administration. Over the past 4 years, we have witnessed the greatest loss of a very valuable type of American power in our history: our power to lead, to persuade and to inspire. As Joseph Nye has pointed out, this power will not convert the extremists who oppose us no matter what. Those people must be eliminated, pure, and simple.…”