WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (AFP) - Secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday angrily defended her integrity from Senate Democrats, who accused her of bending her statements to conform to administration policy on Iraq.
Rice's near-certain US Senate confirmation later this week as Washington's emissary to the world did not deter Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from picking a few nasty fights with her during her confirmation hearing before the panel.
Lawmakers grilled Rice, currently President George W. Bush's national security adviser and a leading advocate of Washington's Iraq policy, about what they said was an absence of a clear exit strategy for US troops embroiled in the ongoing violence there.
In perhaps the testiest exchange, California Senator Barbara Boxer accused Rice of being misleading, even duplicitous, in her statements -- both during the hearing, and in the past.
"I personally believe ... that your loyalty to the mission you were given -- to sell this war -- overwhelmed your respect for the truth," Boxer said.
Boxer displayed on an poster a listing of Rice's public statements on Iraq, which the California senator said were either at odds with fact, or which contradicted earlier administration statements.
The California Democrat also criticized the administration's military action against Saddam Hussein nearly two years ago as "a war that was not built on the truth."
Rice strongly denied the charges.
"I have never, ever lost respect for the truth in the service of anything," she angrily declared.
"It is not my nature. It is not my character. And I would hope that we can have this conversation ... without impugning my credibility or my integrity."
She added that she continued to believe that removing the Saddam was the right policy.
"We knew that he was an implacable enemy of the United States, who did cavort with terrorists. We knew that he was the world's most dangerous man in the world's most dangerous region," said Rice.
The exchange was one of several flashpoints between Rice and Senate Democrats, who at times praised her triumphant life of achievement, as an African-American who grew up facing overwhelming odds in the racially segregated South.
Nevertheless, Democrats remained highly critical of Bush administration foreign policy -- especially US Iraq policy -- and said they expected her to take the lead in improving it.
US Senator John Kerry, the defeated Democratic presidential candidate, said his reservations were strong enough that he might choose not to vote for Rice's nomination.
"You are going to be confirmed and everybody knows that. But without anything personal at all, whether or not it is with my vote is yet to be determined."
"We went in to rescue Iraq from Saddam Hussein," the Massachusetts Democrat said.
"Now I think we have to rescue our policy from ourselves."
Senator Joe Biden, the top Democrat on the committee, said he was particularly concerned about America's loss of standing in the world since the war in Iraq.
"This is a time for new diplomatic offensive with old friends, rising powers and even hostile regimes," he said.
"It has to do as much with listening as it does talking."
01/18/2005 23:57 GMT - AFP