original article: washington post
Staff writers William Branigin and Michael Fletcher contributed to this report.


President Obama this morning nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, hailing her as "an inspiring woman" with a moving personal story and broad professional experience who would bring new perspective to the court.

If confirmed, Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice and only the third woman ever to sit on the panel. She grew up in a Bronx housing project, went on to Princeton University and Yale Law School, and has stirred controversy by saying that judges' legal findings are informed by their own life experiences as well as their legal research.

Obama, too, has said jurists' life experiences are a key part of their legal makeup, and he cited Sotomayor's compelling personal story as one of the motivations for his choice. Aides said Obama met Sotomayor in person for the first time Thursday, and made his decision to nominate her last night.

"Over a distinguished career that spans three decades, Judge Sotomayor has worked at almost every level of our judicial system, providing her with a depth of experience and a breadth of perspective that will be invaluable as a Supreme Court justice," Obama said in the East Room announcement, before an enthusiastic crowd that included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, NAACP officials, Sotomayor's mother and other relatives and some of her former law clerks.

Describing the sacrifices made by Sotomayor's parents, who came from Puerto Rico to New York to raise their family and focused all their efforts on their children's education, Obama said the family exemplified the American dream. "What Sonia will bring to the court, then, is not only the knowledge and experience acquired over a course of a brilliant legal career, but the wisdom accumulated from an inspiring life's journey," he said.

Obama said of his nominee, "Walking in the door, she would bring more experience on the bench and more varied experience on the bench than anyone currently serving on the United States Supreme Court had when they were appointed."

Obama noted that Sotomayor was first appointed to the federal bench by a Republican president -- George H.W. Bush -- and promoted by a Democrat, Bill Clinton. He urged the Senate to confirm her swiftly.

Accepting the nomination after Obama introduced her, Sotomayor said she chose to become a lawyer and ultimately a judge "because I find endless challenge in the complexities of the law."

She added: "I firmly believe in the rule of law as the foundation for all of our basic rights." But she also vowed to "never forget the real-world consequences of my decisions on individuals, businesses and government."

Obama made the announcement before leaving Washington for a two-day trip to California and Las Vegas that will focus mostly on fundraising events. He set a deadline of confirming Sotomayor by the start of the Senate's five-week recess, slated to begin Aug. 7.

This morning, Obama called Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the top Republican on the committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Sotomayor, who has been considered a likely Supreme Court pick in the event of an opening while a Democrat occupied the White House, called the nomination "the most humbling honor of my life." Since Souter announced his retirement May 1, analysts had widely predicted that she would be Obama's choice.

Picking Sotomayor offers the president an opportunity to potentially shape the court in a way that his liberal constituency will like. And aides have said the president has been keenly aware of wanting to make a historic pick by naming the first Hispanic justice.

Already, activists on the left are cheering the pick. "We already know that she is a brilliant lawyer who is committed to ruling based on the Constitution and the law, not on her own personal political views," said Doug Kendall, president of the liberal Constitution Accountability Center, in an e-mailed statement this morning.

The National Organization of Women issued a statement saying that she "brings a lifelong commitment to equality, justice and opportunity, as well as the respect of her peers, unassailable integrity, and a keen intellect informed by experience."

Latino legal activists also applauded Sotomayor's appointment. "This is the most important Hispanic appointment that has been made in this country's history," said Cesar Perales, executive director of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a New York-based civil rights group, where Sotomayor once served as a board member. "It is a recognition that we are coming of age, that we can be one of nine wise people on the Supreme Court, making decisions that affect everyone in this country."

However, Sotomayor is strongly opposed by conservative groups, who have signaled their intention to use her nomination as a rallying cry against liberal causes. Republican lawmakers said this weekend they would try to slow down her confirmation, which despite the strong Democratic majority in the Senate could lead to an all-consuming fight this summer that could divert attention from the rest of Obama's political and economic agenda.

"Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written," said Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, in a statement e-mailed to reporters this morning. "She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench."

On his radio program this morning, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh called Sotomayor a racist and urged Republicans to go all-out to oppose her confirmation. He also blasted Sotomayor as a "horrible pick" and a "hack" but said he doubted that her nomination can be stopped.

Citing a 2002 speech at the University of California, Berkeley, in which Sotomayor said it was appropriate for judges to consider their "experiences as women and people of color" in reaching decisions, Limbaugh said: "So here you have a racist. You might want to soften that and you might want to say a reverse racist." He added, "Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist, and now he's appointed one."

Limbaugh went on to say of the nominee, "She's not the brain that they're portraying her to be. She's not a constitutional jurist. She is an affirmative action case extraordinaire, and she has put down white men in favor of Latina women." He said Republicans should "take this to the mat."

Limbaugh also described the Hispanic woman jurist as a "two-run homer" for Obama and a "two-prong minority." But he predicted that "a majority of Republicans are going to be scared to death to oppose her or even say anything about her because the Dems are going to use race left and right."

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination last year, said Obama's choice exposes as "mere rhetoric" his campaign pledges to be centrist and bipartisan. "Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the 'Extreme Court' that could mark a major shift," he said in a statement.

Other opponents point out that even the Obama administration has differed with one of Sotomayor's more controversial decisions, which invalidated results of a firefighter promotion exam in New Haven, Conn.

White House advisers believe there is little likelihood that Republicans can stop her confirmation unless some unknown damaging information about her surfaces, and aides said they expect Republicans not to delay the nomination unfairly. With the recent switch of Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party, the GOP cannot effectively mount a filibuster without help from Democrats, which they are unlikely to get.

But Obama's administration is not taking the confirmation for granted. They are assembling a team of lawyers to help shepherd her through the nomination process, which will include a series of private meetings with senators in the coming days and mock hearings behind closed doors to prepare her for what could be intense grilling.

The effort will be led inside the White House by Cynthia Hogan, the chief counsel to Vice President Biden. Officials described her as a veteran of the process and said Biden -- as a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and his chief of staff, Ron Klain, will also play key roles.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who represents Sotomayor's home state, will play a key role in introducing her to his colleagues, officials said.

In addition, the administration has also moved Stephanie Cutter, a longtime Democratic operative, from the Treasury Department to help Sotomayor through the process.

Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld New Haven's decision to scuttle a promotions test for firefighters after the results showed no African Americans qualified for advancement. The white firefighters who would have been promoted said the decision violated federal law and their constitutional rights.

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and a ruling is expected before the end of this term. The case went to the high court after an unusual dissent by conservative fellow judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, who said Sotomayor and two others tried to bury important federal law and constitutional questions raised by the firefighters' suit in their ruling.

The Supreme Court seemed unlikely to let the decision stand when it heard arguments in the case last month. The Obama administration took the position that New Haven officials could throw out the results if they were genuinely concerned that the tests were deficient. But it said the lower courts did not do enough to make sure the city was not using that concern as a pretext for scuttling the test because it did not like the results, and told the justices they should send the case back.

Sotomayor's Puerto Rican heritage would add ethnic diversity to the court. But her Ivy League education mirrors that of most of the justices -- all but one of whom attended either Harvard or Yale for part of their education. The eight justices she would serve with also were appellate court judges before joining the high court. But, as Obama pointed out, Sotomayor also served as a prosecutor and a lower court judge earlier in her career.

Obama interviewed Sotomayor for an hour in the Oval Office last Thursday, White House officials said. In all, the judge spent seven hours at the White House, talking with advisers who were in charge of helping Obama make the critical decision.

The president interviewed three others: Kagan, 49; U.S. appeals court Judge Diane P. Woods, 58; and Homeland security Secretary Janet Napolitano, 51, a senior White House official said. Woods and Kagan met with Obama last Tuesday. Napolitano met with the president on Thursday.

The advisers, who declined to speak on the record, said Obama had indicated to them after the interviews that he had an inclination of whom he would pick but that he wanted to think about the choice over the long Memorial Day weekend.

They said he was in his study in the East Wing of the White House when he informed them of his decision at about 8 p.m. Monday. He called Sotomayor to inform her of his choice, and then called the other three, the officials said.

Court watchers had speculated that Obama might use the vacancy to appoint a state-level judge, or possibly someone who was not a member of the bench -- perhaps a governor or current or former legislator.

In making the announcement today, Obama said he reached his decision "only after deep reflection and careful deliberation." Listing qualities that guided his choice, he said first was "a rigorous intellect, a mastery of the law, an ability to home in on the key issues and provide clear answers to complex legal questions." Second, he said, was "a recognition of the limits of the judicial role," a respect for precedent and an understanding that judges interpret the law rather than make it.

"And yet these qualities alone are insufficient," Obama said. "We need something more." He cited experiences in life, quoting renowned Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. "It is experience that can give a person a common touch and a sense of compassion, an understanding of how the world works and how ordinary people live," Obama said.

He noted that Sotomayor has been both a "big-city prosecutor and a corporate litigator." He said she spent six years trying cases in U.S. district court and, if confirmed, "would replace Justice Souter as the only justice with experience as a trial judge -- a perspective that would enrich the judgments of the court."

Obama singled out one of her roughly 450 district court cases for special praise, saying it "involved a matter of enormous concern to many Americans, including me: the baseball strike of 1994 and '95." Drawing laughter from the audience, the president went on: "In a decision that reportedly took her just 15 minutes to announce -- a swiftness much appreciated by baseball fans everywhere -- she issued an injunction that helped end the strike. Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball."

He also noted that Sotomayor is "a lifelong Yankees fan," having been raised in a housing project not far from Yankee Stadium, and said he hoped this would not "disqualify her in the eyes of New Englanders in the Senate."

Sotomayor said her personal and professional experiences "have helped me appreciate the variety of perspectives that present themselves in every case that I hear" and to "understand, respect and respond to the concerns and arguments of all litigants," as well as the views of colleagues on the bench.

"I hope that as the Senate and American people learn more about me, they will see that I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences," she said.

International Women of Courage Award Ceremony at www.states.gov

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1797019197/bctid15389713001

Clinton's human rights address

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1911416296/bctid14120286001

Hillary Clinton: Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton being sworn in on 21 January 2009.
www.state.gov

Original article in WashingtonPost

Defined by Her Times and Defining Them, Michelle Obama Is a First Among First Ladies

By Lonnae O'Neal Parker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 19, 2009; 6:33 PM



The space underneath the photo of Michelle Robinson Obama in the "First Ladies" exhibit at the National Museum of American History is blank. The only thing that fills it is imagination.

The picture of Obama, wearing a short-sleeved turtleneck and tasteful stud earrings, sits across from Martha Washington's silk taffeta gown and down from the parasol of Sarah Polk.

Martha capably managed the family slave plantation when George was away and Sarah once said that framers of the Declaration of Independence had it wrong when they wrote that all men were created equal. Slaves, the first lady mused, and the mistresses who fanned themselves at the window while watching them work, "were created" for their roles.

Standing in front of the Obama picture, the low whispers of the room mix with echoes from the culture. A "Sesame Street" game: One of these things is not like the others.

Obama's picture, at the end of a long line of first ladies' images and artifacts, is a natural place for visitors to linger and project. It's what Americans have been doing with Michelle Obama since she first strode across a campaign stage two years ago. The attention has turned blinding since her husband, Barack Obama, was elected the 44th president and Barack, 47, Michelle, 45, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, the youngest first family in decades, the first African American first family, moved to Washington; since Michelle Obama became a standard-bearer for the nation.

"Over the years, the role of first lady has been perceived as largely symbolic," former first lady Hillary Clinton once said of the position. "She is expected to represent an ideal -- and largely mythical -- concept of American womanhood."

First lady is a position without constitutionally prescribed duties, but it's the closest person to the most powerful man in the world -- a position of unaccountable influence. To the weight of it all, Obama brings degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law, attractiveness, vitality, fitness. And she's a mother of two. A mommy.

"Michelle was so great in the campaign," Clair Ward enthuses, leaving the exhibit with three other 17-year-old classmates from Woodstock, Va. "It's kind of awesome that, like, we're around" to see history. Ward wants her to focus on environmental issues.

"I hope she gets involved more on a global scale," says Margot Gurganus.

"While maintaining her motherly role," says Hanna Lehnen.

"That's important, too," Jenny Hoye chimes in.

"She's going to be a role model for us all in the upcoming year -- like you really can have it all," Gurganus says.

Bethesda residents Joel Happy, a 27-year-old accountant, and his wife, Keisha, a 28-year-old academic coordinator at the University of Maryland, stand close to the Obama picture, whispering. "I feel like now that Michelle is there, I can come and have a history to talk about," says Joel, who was born in France to parents from Cameroon. "Before, it was like, 'Why are you in this room looking at all the white ladies?' "

Now, "I can really feel part of this country," says Keisha, whose mother is from Guyana.

Their excitement about Michelle Obama is emblematic of a wider appeal, the carefully honed image connoting an all-American archetype. It's functional-family time.

J. Crew spams us with pop-up ads for the outfit Obama wore on "The Tonight Show," and the Donna Ricco dress she wears on "The View" sells out at White House/Black Market. And the forever-ago fist bump the night her husband secured the Democratic nomination, why, that's just the new sign for Pax Americana.

The fact that they are black is icing or incidental, a shimmery piece of that urban cool, or at best a side calculation, in some reckonings. But others note the image of an African American family is one you rarely find even these days on the major television networks. Perhaps today is also the beginning of a new understanding; there are conversations we have yet to have.

Who you think Michelle Obama is depends on who you are; depends on race, depends on class, depends on the things your mother used to say when she felt frustrated with her own life. Or perhaps it is that the Obamas are like a national jigsaw puzzle. They only fit together this one way in this one unique time, but all of us feel like we recognize little pieces of them.

"There are things that we look at in a first family and in a first lady that we don't see in a president," says first ladies historian Myra Gutin. They become "a window to learn a little about the character of the president." With each administration there are new questions about the role and significance of the first lady and whether she reflects the role of women in the society. "Will the times permit Michelle Obama to be groundbreaking, or is she going to be more traditional? We're going to learn a lot through smaller details."

Janet Lindsey lives "in a very WASPy" area of Severna Park. She didn't vote for Barack Obama but thinks Michelle Obama will be a strong first lady. "Despite being well educated, she's a good balance," Lindsey says. She appreciates that "her number one thing is her kids. And being a good wife to her husband. That sounds old school, but that's a big job."

Historian Betty Boyd noted a "striking pattern" among men who become president. They marry up. They choose women with more money or better connections, a more discerning eye for spotting friends, enemies and opportunities.

It's like Mary Todd Lincoln once said: Men have the advantage of us women.

"Michelle just did what we all do," says Kamyra Harding, a partner at a resource development firm in Manhattan. "You find this guy and you mold him, he's got the raw material, but he had to be polished before anyone would pay attention to him. You want the house, check, the little girls, check, check."

Women and children have always acted as a bridge to the community. Add a layer to this in the black community.

In fact, add five.

Black people revel in the "us-ness" of Michelle. Her Chicago South Side bona fides. Her well-coiffed brownness. It made instant stakeholders of people who had been, for an age, invited only to press their noses against the glass.

Her Princeton roommate Angela Kennedy Acree, a lawyer with the Public Defenders Service in Washington, predicts that Michelle Obama's White House "will be much more accessible."

"She said to me before the election and since that she's going to open up the White House to the community and particularly to children." The Obama girls will have "friends in and out" and "there'll be many, many more regular D.C. kids saying, 'I went to the White House,' " Acree says. "Not just for the Easter Egg Roll. Kids whose parents don't have connections or money."

A couple of weeks ago, Acree had dinner with her old friend at the Hay-Adams Hotel. Obama is a believer in "clean foods," largely devoid of chemicals. As the girls popped in and out to ask about homework, Obama talked about the obesity epidemic. "She was just saying she wanted to be a role model for how you can manage to be a busy working mom and still taking care of yourself, getting a little exercise and eating as healthy as you can."

As first lady, she's "going to be worried about health and nutrition for regular people who cannot necessarily shop at Whole Foods," Acree says. "I believe there are going to be groups of little kids going to the White House kitchen to eat clean foods."

Since the election, feminist writers have fretted over the "Mommification of Michelle," concerned about the focus on the new first lady, a former vice president with the University of Chicago Hospitals, as "mom in chief." Especially with Hillary Clinton having come so close to winning the nomination, they worry that Obama's promoting a retrograde image of women. Others are still marveling that there's a first lady on the front of Ebony. It's become something of a cultural fault line.

Black women don't often publicly inveigh on the work/family divide. Although Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, stayed home, most black women work outside the home. Often it's taken two incomes to keep black families afloat. And more than 100 years ago, middle-class black women who had the option to stay home decided true womanhood included careers.

Still -- if Obama does nothing but tend to her children, she will nevertheless be a powerful symbol. One of the biggest poverties in the black community is a poverty of images. Black women have been desexualized or oversexed: The hoochie mama, the baby mama, the faithful Aunt Jemima. The new first family, with two little girls in two-strand twists, changes all that, says Daphne Valerius, a freelance journalist and filmmaker. Her documentary "The Souls of Black Girls" is a look at image disorders in African American girls.

With Malia and Sasha, their influence "is much larger than any show, than any rap video, than any commercial, than any magazine article. It's bigger than the Italian Vogue issue with all black girls."

Stephanie Jackson-Rowe, a mother of four whose oldest daughter used to take ballet classes with Malia in Chicago, sometimes chatted with Obama about their mutual interest in fitness as they waited for the girls. Last year, Rowe started the fundraising group Moms for Michelle so her daughter and others could feel included in the campaign. She's thinking now of turning it into a kind of Michelle Obama society.

"All of those concerned about Michelle need to give her time," Rowe says. "She's not just going to sit up there and eat bonbons. Whatever she does is going to be right for the American people, not just African Americans. She wants to fight the good fight."

Ultimately Obama's appeal has everything to do with our own hunger. Some want to see a family. Some want to see the engaged career woman making a difference. Some want to see an egalitarian marriage. Some just love seeing black love.

"We're all in this together," Michelle Obama said repeatedly during the campaign. And today that truth is self-evident.

At the first ladies exhibit, distant echoes fill the space. Surrounded by so much history, it's easy to let the imagination wander -- to see better angels. And ghosts, chained by the weight of history. Here is the lorgnette of Mary Todd Lincoln, a rabid abolitionist. One of her dresses is in the Abraham Lincoln display in another part of the museum. It was made by her faithful servant and friend, Elizabeth Keckly, who died at the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington. Her remains have been lost to time.

Michelle Obama represents a convergence point in our national journey. It is, in some ways, unrealistic to have such unbounded expectations for one person and one family. But that's what hope is.

We can't know what her artifacts will be at the end of four years, or eight, just as we couldn't have known this daughter of black, working-class Chicago could even have claimed a space on the wall.

We can only imagine.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

A great day! :)

Back at the Clubhouse, Clinton Gets a Warm Embrace

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; A03


At Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing yesterday, senators came up with a new interpretation of the Constitution's "advice and consent" clause. This one could be called the "admire and congratulate" clause.

"In Senator Clinton, President-elect Obama has boldly chosen the epitome of a big-leaguer," gushed Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

"She's an excellent choice," asserted Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).

"There couldn't be a better person to represent our nation," Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) amended.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) sounded as if she were writing for Hallmark as she told Clinton: "I truly appreciate all that you are poised to do and what you have done in the past."

The line of spectators trying to get into the hearing room snaked the length of the Hart Senate Office Building -- more than even a nominee to the Supreme Court can expect -- and yet there was no suspense inside. Clinton's confirmation was a sure thing, and the senators were so deferential to their colleague that they didn't bother to swear her in, the way they did when her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, came for her confirmation.

Instead, they posed for photos with the nominee and, in some cases, physically embraced her. "You've come a long way, but you've always retained your tireless efforts to better the world," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in the style of a man speaking at a retirement party. Schumer informed his fellow New Yorker that she'll "be a brilliant secretary of state" -- then put an arm around her.

"We need to excuse you -- post-hug," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told Schumer, who released Clinton, then gave her a pat on the back before leaving the hearing room.

Kerry, making his debut as the panel's chairman, spoke for "every member of the committee" when he called Clinton "extraordinarily capable and smart." His solicitousness even extended to Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, who sat behind her mother in a purple dress. "Since your father served as an intern on this committee, maybe we can make you an intern for a day -- chairman's prerogative," Kerry offered. "So if you want to come up here later and look out, we're happy to welcome you." Chelsea Clinton politely waved off the offer.

Pre-hearing expectations had it that Senate Republicans, though unable to block Clinton, would pepper her with ethics accusations over her husband's foundation and charitable work. But the Senate is a club, and even the opposition thought it poor form to pick on a fellow member. "Despite the news accounts that say that I'm the one that's going to ask you the hard questions about potential conflicts of interest, I have no questions about your integrity," offered Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

With a bipartisan group of lawmakers going gaga for the nominee, the task of upholding high ethical standards fell to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), whose phone number appeared in the records of a prostitution ring. "Like a lot of folks, I have some concerns about these conflict issues," Vitter began when his turn came, five hours into the hearing. Clinton, referring to notes, calmly rebuffed the senator. When Vitter persisted in his line of questioning, Kerry intervened to defend Clinton, assuring Vitter that all was aboveboard. "I don't want to beat a dead horse," Vitter said, before finally relenting.

The questioning of Clinton, who sat at the witness table in an olive-brown jacket that brought to mind military fatigues, brought out a full complement of media heavies, including Joe Klein, Maureen Dowd and Andrea Mitchell.

On the dais sat three men who, like the nominee, were failed presidential candidates themselves. "For the first time in American history, one of our members will be sworn in as president and another one as vice president," Kerry said with pride. "Before any of the newer members of our committee get too excited about future prospects, let Dick Lugar, Chris Dodd and myself -- and perhaps even Hillary will join in this -- in saying, trust us, it ain't automatic."

Clinton listened to the lawmakers praise her for 45 minutes, then returned the affection in her own, 33-minute statement. "I love the Senate," she told her clubmates. "It will be hard to say goodbye."

"Wonderful," Kerry said when Clinton finished.

"We're always glad to see when one of our own does well," chimed in Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).

Back and forth they volleyed the praise.

Clinton called Lugar's leadership on arms proliferation "a great example." Lugar hailed Clinton's answer as "very good news." Clinton praised Lugar for "demonstrating your farsighted, realistic understanding of security threats."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told Clinton, "You're a dedicated public servant."

"You have been such a leader," Clinton replied.

"I couldn't have asked for a better answer," Boxer returned.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who had drawn an elaborate doodle of an eight-pointed ship's wheel, told Clinton that she had "done a marvelous job" at the witness table. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) thrice informed Clinton that she had gone "above and beyond" ethics requirements. Even Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) was smitten. He paraphrased Clinton's opening statement and then asked her, "Do you agree with that?"

"Senator Isakson, I couldn't say it any better," came the nominee's reply.

The hearing was nearly over by the time Lugar gently told Clinton that he, like Vitter, had some concerns about the conflicts of interest with her husband's fundraising. "Having said that, I've indicated that I support your nomination," Lugar hastened to add, "because your qualifications are remarkable."

"I respect you so much, Senator," Clinton answered.

Hillary Clinton at the Secretary of State comfirmation hearing ...

'The president- elect and I believe that foreign policy must be based on marriage of principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology. On facts and evidence, not emotion or prejudice. Our security, our vitality and our ability to lead in today’s world oblige us to recognise the overwhelming fact of our interdependence'.

Helen Suzman

Article from: The Australian

THE most celebrated white champion of the anti-apartheid movement, Helen Suzman was the South African MP who for 36 years consistently denounced the iniquities of racial segregation. Often, she was the sole politician in South Africa's parliament to campaign vociferously against apartheid. For six years, she was also the only woman among 165 MPs, enduring the contempt of male parliamentarians who viewed white supremacy as a birthright, and to whom liberal was a dirty word.

Undeterred, Suzman used her privileges as an MP to gain access to areas forbidden to the general public: prisons, black townships and "resettlement areas" in the tribal homelands. At every step she highlighted the evils of the system.

She began her parliamentary career as a United Party MP in 1953, but left in 1959 to co-found the Progressive Party after the United Party split on the question of allocation of land to blacks. For 13 years she was the party's only representative in parliament. But she persevered, using the paradoxical circumstance of the authoritarian government's respect for the parliamentary system to challenge it and its policies at every turn.

Her most relentless campaign was against the notorious pass laws, which restricted the movement of blacks and prevented them from selling their labour in the open market. The repeal of these odious laws towards the end of the life of apartheid government in South Africa owed much to her obduracy.

Slight of build though she was, Suzman had great reserves of courage and stamina. She used question time to good effect, drawing attention to abuses in the police force and other departments of state and ensuring that these gained the widest publicity.

Suzman was born in Germiston, a small mining town outside Johannesburg, on November 7, 1917. She was the daughter of Samuel Gavronsky, a Jewish immigrant who had come to the Transvaal from Lithuania. She was educated at Parktown Convent in Johannesburg and at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she read commerce and economics. She married in 1937 before graduating, and dropped out to give birth to her first child. She returned to her studies and completed her degree with first-class honours.

After World War II. Suzman taught economic history at Witwatersrand for eight years before going into politics. She entered parliament representing the Houghton constituency of Johannesburg in 1953. At that time D.F. Malan's Nationalists had completed five years in office and were enforcing the first apartheid legislation. Elected as a member of the party of Jan Smuts, Suzman was one of a group of liberal-minded MPs who broke away to form the Progressive Party in 1959. In the general election of 1961 this new party was all but wiped out at the polls: Suzman was the only survivor, as she was at the elections of 1966 and 1970.

In the 1960s, with the Vorster government introducing the first legislation providing for detention without trial, hers was frequently the only dissenting voice on the Opposition benches. It was this legislation, later supplemented by the Terrorism Act and consolidated in the Internal Security Act, that gave the state powers to hold detainees incommunicado and in solitary confinement. It also gave rise to abuses such as torture during interrogation and a spate of deaths in detention.

Suzman was witty and irrepressible in debate, a master of the pungent aside and cutting rejoinder. She often faced roars of disapproval from the government benches as she argued the case against the Nationalist government's ideological legislation. In the '60s, she frequently had to stand her ground in debate amid intense anger and abuse. The three successive prime ministers whom she confronted over a period of 25 years, Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster and P.W. Botha, she subsequently described as "as nasty a trio as you could encounter in your worst nightmares". She later admitted that Verwoerd was "the only man who has ever scared me stiff". Yet she stood up to him in the house, notably on one occasion in 1961 when he was at his most aggressive and sarcastic, telling her that "the country has written you off". Suzman replied, "The world has written you off."

Her spell as the only Progressive MP came to an end in 1974 when the party won five more seats. Indeed, as the United Party continued to lose ground at the polls, the Progressive Party gradually became the official Opposition, and Suzman's onslaughts on apartheid gained welcome reinforcement.

From the outset Suzman had taken a special interest in conditions in South African prisons. She visited Nelson Mandela on Robben Island in the early '60s, continuing to do so in later years. She was one of the first MPs to visit the squatter camps such as Crossroads and bring them to the attention of parliament. In latter years she paid particular attention to what she believed were deteriorating standards in the South African judicial system and, in particular, the recurring cases in which whites who beat blacks to death in the most brutal fashion were given scandalously light sentences.

In 1989 she introduced the first censure motion before parliament on a judge, J.J. Strydom, who had given a five-year suspended jail sentence, and a fine equivalent to several hundred dollars, to a farmer, Jacobus Vorster, who had beaten a black labourer to death. Vorster was also to pay a small stipend to the widow and five children of the victim for the next five years.

It goes without saying that Suzman's censure motion was thrown out. Yet, South Africa was on the verge of change. Botha had given up the leadership of his party in February 1989, though still retaining the state presidency. His successor, education minister F.W. de Klerk, though not previously noted as a reformer, was soon calling for a non-racist South Africa and for full-scale negotiations about the country's future.

But 1989 was also the year in which Suzman decided to retire from politics. At 70 she felt that much of what she had striven for was about to be achieved. In South Africa she then watched from the sidelines the events leading to the release of Mandela and the transition to majority rule with a mixture of apprehension and hope. Her autobiography, In No Uncertain Terms, was published in 1993. She was appointed to the Order of Merit of South Africa in 1997 and the Helen Suzman Foundation, an independent think-tank dedicated to the promotion of liberal values, was founded in her honour.

Suzman's husband, M.M. Suzman, died in 1994. She is survived by their two daughters.

The Times