HRC confirmation hearing: smart power, little drama

Definitely go visit Megan Carpentier‘s inspired, running account of Hillary Clinton‘s SecState nomination hearing today at FP‘s Madam Secretary (including her take on Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana), reportedly no stranger to scandal, trying valiantly to provide the day’s only fireworks in interrogating HRC about her husband’s foundation’s donors.)

My overall sense, having tuned in on C-Span, was that HRC was good and comprehensive. She spoke to Obama’s foreign policy vision, and to each individual senator’s pet issues — Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and his concern about nuclear terrorism, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), on workforce management issues, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), on the treatment of female contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), on violence against women overseas. The hearings for the most part overflowed with comity, such that in the end there was very little even feigned opposition to her nomination. She was a no-drama nominee.

A couple further observations from my notes, some channeled from back and forth with a Hill aide in the room, in roughly chronological order:

9:38am:
For those of you reading tea leaves, HRC was accompanied to the hearing room by an entourage that included:

• Daughter Chelsea (no sign of Bill)
• HRC national security advisor Wendy Sherman
• HRC Senate Armed Service Committee aide Andrew Shapiro
• HRC advisor and press officer Philippe Reines
• Clinton foreign policy advisor Lee Feinstein
• Rich Verma, a former staffer for Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is reportedly in line to be assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs
• HRC "aide de camp" Huma Abedin

10:27am:
HRC is reading out verbatim a very long prepared statement — not providing an abridged version of her written remarks, as one would expect.

10:31am:
We are only halfway through the statement.

10:59am:
Good first set of questions from Kerry. HRC made very clear she will divulge little today in way of future policy — citing the need for policy review, consulting with allies, not wanting to get into details in advance of taking office, etc.

1:07pm:
For my money, the more instructive signals on what we can expect from the Obama administration are in those response to the Kerry QFRs (pdf, ~4.5 MB), not the back-and-forth during this hearing, which is general in nature.

Also worth noting: HRC’s prominent focus in her remarks on "smart power," a framing introduced to the public sphere by Suzanne Nossel, a former deputy ambassador to the U.N. who is now the COO of Human Rights Watch.

HRC today:

The President-Elect and I believe that foreign policy must be based on a 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 recognize the overwhelming fact of our interdependence.

I believe that American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted. We must use what has been called "smart power," the full range of tools at our disposal — diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural — picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation.

With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy. This is not a radical idea. The ancient Roman poet Terence, who was born a slave and rose to become one of the great voices of his time, declared that "in every endeavor, the seemly course for wise men is to try persuasion first." The same truth binds wise women as well.

The committee could vote as early as Thursday on HRC’s nomination.