Democrats Scold Rice, Prepare to Dissent

Senate Democrats on Tuesday attacked the nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of State, arguing in a daylong debate that she had misled Congress and the public on the need for war against Iraq.

Rice is expected to easily win confirmation in a Senate vote scheduled for today. But Senate staffers said at least 10 and as many as 20 senators were expected to vote against her nomination. If so, Rice would become the first secretary of State not to win unanimous confirmation since 1981, when six senators voted against the nomination of Alexander M. Haig.

However, Senate Democratic leaders did not attempt to rally their ranks to reject Rice. Instead, the Democratic leadership reserved its political capital for a stand against President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales.

“Frankly, there is much more angst over Gonzales, and there comes a practical choice: Having been [branded] an obstructionist party for so long, do you lead with Rice ... or do you take on a candidate who is more problematic?” one staffer said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the Gonzales nomination today, and a close vote could lead to more widespread Democratic opposition when the full Senate votes, probably next week.

Even her fiercest critics described Rice on Tuesday as well qualified for the job -- a candidate with an inspiring personal history and a diplomat who would be able to speak with the president’s voice when talking to foreign leaders.

But the debate over the nomination of Rice, Bush’s high-profile national security advisor and confidante, mirrored the political divisions of the presidential election campaign.

Democrats argued that Rice, a senior member of the Bush administration, exaggerated, misled or lied before the war by presenting as true or uncontested intelligence that was later proved false. Rice had said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda, Democrats said. She also said Hussein had purchased specialized aluminum tubes that were only suitable for uranium enrichment and had attempted to purchase uranium from Africa for a possible nuclear weapon, Democrats said. All these assertions were later found to be untrue.

Several senators said that Rice was the first Cabinet official to suggest that Saddam Hussein might soon have nuclear weapons, saying in September 2002, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

Under questioning about her prewar statements by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Rice asked Boxer to “refrain from impugning my integrity.” That tense moment in the committee hearing was recalled during Tuesday’s debate.

“I don’t like to impugn anyone’s integrity, but I really don’t like being lied to repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally,” Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) said. “It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic, it’s un-American, and it’s dangerous.... And it is occurring far too frequently in this administration. And this Congress, this Senate must demand that it stop now.”

Democrats also said they were disturbed by what they called Rice’s evasiveness about definitions of torture and by her opposition to a Senate measure last fall that would have specifically banned “cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment” of foreign terrorism suspects by U.S. intelligence officers abroad.

Republicans lauded Rice as an experienced foreign policy official who commanded the confidence of a president who should be given the right to choose his own foreign policy team. And they accused Democrats of a partisanship that focused on the political battles of the past rather than the foreign policy challenges of the next four years.

“It is too easy to snipe from the sidelines at nominees like Dr. Rice who are willing to sacrifice themselves to further the interests of our country,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is among those planning to vote against Rice. A possible presidential contender in 2008, Bayh supported the Iraq war but faulted the administration Tuesday for “ineptitude” and “incompetence” in its execution.

“Accountability must be had,” Bayh said.

Bush this month dismissed critics’ calls for accountability from his administration. “We had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 elections,” Bush told the Washington Post.

Democrats planning to vote to confirm Rice include Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).

Republican leaders, who wanted to confirm Rice on Inauguration Day on Thursday, were angry that Democrats had delayed her approval.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) predicted that Rice would win confirmation on a “very strong bipartisan vote.” Asked whether the additional days of debate demanded by Democrats were necessary, Frist replied, “Absolutely not.”

But Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said the Senate’s constitutional role in approving nominees “was never intended by the framers to be used to burnish the image of a president on Inauguration Day.”

Times staff writer Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this report.