POLIS

The Senate Foreign Relations committee voted 16-2 to send NSA Rice's confirmation as the next Sec. of State to the Senate floor. Illinoisans might want to note Sen. Barack Obama's first high-profile vote, committee or otherwise, in this case being cast in the affirmative to recommend the confirmation. I have no idea what sort of inside baseball goes on amongst committee members of the same party. Clearly Sen. Boxer was sent to be the attack dog in this battle. Sen. Kerry probably has all the freedom he wants at this point. The etiquette for freshmen senators is to stay fast to leadership, keep your head down, earn quiet respect; Sen. Obama, as much as Sen. Clinton before him, needs to keep out of the spotlight and do the hard work of becoming a parliamentarian. All that, and add the nigh-impossibility of voting against another African-American. Really, he had almost no choice in this case but to vote to recommend.

Still, it must have been hard to press the yea button.