The BBC today opined on the confirmation hearings being held to approve Condi Rice as the new U.S. Secretary of State. Here’s the ever-editorializing Beeb on Rice’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations:

The votes against her do not put her confirmation in doubt, but they do suggest she failed to reach out convincingly to those senators who say they would have liked to have supported a new start, says the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington.

Come on. Only two senators voted against Rice’s confirmation, John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. I suppose Kerry has got to try to feel important after being defeated in November’s presidential election. While Kerry has no convictions about anything, Boxer is just a purely-partisan, old-time, left-wing blowhard.

The Committee on Foreign Relations has 18 members, 8 of whom are Democrats. The 16-2 vote for Rice was a bipartisan, ringing endorsement. I guess the Beeb just has to see the glass half empty -- especially when it comes to the Bush administration.

To be fair, the BBC did have some praise for Condi:

During Tuesday's session, Ms Rice was composed and confident almost throughout, meticulously well-prepared and showing the quality of her much-heralded brilliant mind - and memory, says the BBC's Jill McGivering in Washington.

She turned easily from one part of the world to the next, from politics and military strategy to trade without consulting notes and with barely a stumble.

For eight hours of question and answer, her performance was nothing if not impressive, our correspondent says.

I’m ecstatic. Condi is brilliant. She will clean the pro-Islamists out of the State Department. She won’t go kowtowing to our so-called “allies” (e.g., Germany and Canada), and she is not afraid of our enemies. Condi, you go girl.