Democrats Are Attacking Rice

I think this is going to be a mistake. Of course the administration must stop backing away from these kids of fights:

WASHINGTON - One Senate Democrat called Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) a liar Tuesday and others said she was an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq (news - web sites), but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state.

Rice, who has been President Bush (news - web sites)'s White House national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said. She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Sen. Mark Dayton (news, bio, voting record), D-Minn. "I don't like impugning anyone's integrity, but I really don't like being lied to," Dayton said. "Repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally..."

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"My vote against this nominee is my statement that this administration's lies must stop now," Dayton said in opposing Rice's nomination on the Senate floor.

Politicians rarely use the word "lie," preferring some of the milder terms other Democrats used Tuesday. "There was no reason to go to war in Iraq when we did, the way we did and for the false reasons we were given," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass.

Rice is not directly responsible for intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war that overestimated Saddam's nuclear capability, said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich. "But she is responsible for her own distortions and exaggerations of the intelligence which was provided to her," Levin said.

"Dr. Rice is responsible for some of the most overblown rhetoric that the administration used to scare the American people," Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record), D-W.Va., said.