McCAIN: RICE A VICTIM OF BDS

Rice was confirmed by the Senate 85-13. McCain spoke well on the floor about the rancorous confirmation process (AP via DRUDGE):

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested Democrats are sore losers. Rice had enough votes to win confirmation, as even her Democratic critics acknowledge, McCain said. "So I wonder why we are starting this new Congress with a protracted debate about a foregone conclusion," McCain said. Since Rice is qualified for the job, he said, "I can only conclude that we are doing this for no other reason than because of lingering bitterness over the outcome of the election."

The same bitterness and extremism has polluted the confirmation of Gonzales. If the Democrat Party continues down this road they will go the way of the Whigs: obstructionism and reactionary policies (which run counter to the basic principles of our Nation's founding) are a dead-end.

I suggest that the Democrats stop paying attention to their extreme Left-wing base (people like Boxer and Kennedy and Kerry and Shaprton and Jackson and Kucinich) and move to the center FAST. This means that they have to get over the election - as McCain suggests - and their anti-Bush obsessive-compulsive disorder: BDS (Bush derangement Syndrome). In other words: they need a dose of REALITY.

More HERE.

UPDATE (NYTIMES): "Those who voted against Ms. Rice, besides Mr. Jeffords and Mr. Dayton, were Senators Barbara Boxer of California, Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts, Carl Levin of Michigan, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Harkin of Iowa."