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Satisfied Senate committee goes easy on Moseley-Braun
November 5, 1999 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee welcomed former Illinois Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun back to the Senate with open arms Friday, as she prepared to answer an expected full slate of difficult questions related to the funding of her 1992 run for the Senate. Moseley-Braun appeared before a hastily scheduled committee hearing convened to consider her nomination by President Bill Clinton for the ambassadorship to New Zealand and Samoa. But the substantive questions lobbed at the former senator were few, and were not at all difficult for her to answer. "I am eager to respond to your questions," Moseley-Braun told the panel. "In fact, I welcome the opportunity." Since Clinton announced his intention to appoint Moseley-Braun to the post, longstanding accusations that she used some $200,000 in campaign money for personal items such as clothes and jewelry -- and sharp criticism about her contact with Nigeria's former military government -- threatened to derail the confirmation process in the Senate. Sen. Jesse Helms, (R-North Carolina), the committee's chairman, had shown early resistance to allowing his panel to move Moseley-Braun through the confirmation process, saying "serious charges of ethical misconduct" left him with grave reservations about her ability to serve the United States as an ambassador. Helms relented earlier this week and allowed the confirmation hearing to proceed, when the Clinton Administration and Moseley-Braun provided the panel with a number of requested documents concerning her 1992 Senate campaign, and the two trips she took to Nigeria between 1992 and 1998. The chairman did not attend the hearing, deferring control of the proceedings to Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyoming), chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee. Thomas said he was satisfied with the contents of the documentation supplied to the committee earlier in the week. "In my opinion, the allegations have been completely investigated by federal agencies. Other members may have questions, but I have none," Thomas said. The task of presenting the most difficult series of questions fell to committee member Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Georgia), who described the accusations and looming ethics questions about Moseley-Braun's dealings in Nigeria as "sticky wickets" that she should be allowed to address. The former Illinois senator described the campaign finance allegations as nothing more than a "seven-year smear campaign." The "stake in the heart" of the allegations, she added, was a determination by the Federal Election Commission that only $311.28 of her 1992 campaign spending could not be accounted for. "Abiding by the law is very important to (me)," she said. "The FEC conducted a 100 percent audit of (our) credit card activity. Not only did they not fine us, there were no sanctions, and no corrective action" was taken. Moseley-Braun described her trips to Nigeria as intended to promote American values of democracy in a country ruled by a military regime castigated for its brutal human rights record. She paid for the trips herself, she said. "Democracy in Africa is very important to me," Moseley-Braun said. "I feel very strongly about that." The committee did not vote Friday to report Moseley-Braun's nomination to the full Senate. The panel's top-ranking Democrat, Joseph Biden of Delaware, said he understood -- after contact with Helms -- that committee members would hold a "rolling vote" Monday, meaning no formal meeting would be held, but members could submit their vote throughout the day. Should Moseley-Braun's nomination be approved by the committee, the full Senate could take up the question by Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) has said he expected the nomination to be approved on the Senate floor. |
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