from Background story in Christian Science Monitor (www.csmmonitor.com/):
Antony Blinken for Deputy Secretary of State. Mr. Blinken has been the president’s deputy national security adviser since January 2013. His old stomping grounds are the U.S. Senate, where he was Democratic staff director for the Committee on Foreign Relations from 2002 to 2008, when he joined the Obama-Biden presidential transition team.
Republicans complain that Blinken is unqualified and that he advocated for and helped implement the Obama administration’s drawdown of U.S. military forces in Iraq. They also worry that he could change the U.S. diplomatic relationship with Cuba. -- debate and vote uncertain. . .
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Actually Dec. 16 (Tuesday) : The Senate confirmed Antony Blinken to be deputy secretary of State in a 55-38 vote on Tuesday.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Blinken’s confirmation endangers U.S. military service members.
“[Blinken] is not only unqualified but, in my view, one of the worst selections of a very bad lot that this president has chosen,” McCain said. “He has been part of a failed foreign policy that has made America less safe.”
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Blinken has served as a foreign policy adviser in the White House and the Senate to Vice President Joe Biden, who McCain said has been wrong on nearly all of his foreign policy predictions, particularly in the Middle East.
McCain chided Blinken for making “abysmally ignorant” comments about conditions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) defended Blinken, saying his nomination comes at a critical time for the United States’ global affairs and that he is “more than qualified.”
excerpt of information at this URL: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/227334-senate-confirms-deputy-secretary-of-state
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