United States Senate Career of Hillary Rodham Clinton - Second Term

Second Term

See also: United States Senate election in New York, 2006

Clinton opposed the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 and supported a February 2007 non-binding Senate resolution against it, which failed to gain cloture. In March 2007 she voted in favor of a war spending bill that required President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within a certain deadline; it passed almost completely along party lines but was subsequently vetoed by President Bush. In May 2007 a compromise war funding bill that removed withdrawal deadlines but tied funding to progress benchmarks for the Iraqi government passed the Senate by a vote of 80-14 and would be signed by Bush; Clinton was one of those that voted against it. In August 2007 Clinton, following the lead of Armed Services Committee chair Carl Levin, called on the Iraqi Parliament to replace Nouri al-Maliki as Prime Minister of Iraq with "a less divisive and more unifying figure," saying that Maliki had failed to make progress in bridging differences between the hostile factions within Iraq. Maliki responded angrily to the suggestion, saying "There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin ... This is severe interference in our domestic affairs." Clinton responded to General David Petraeus's September 2007 Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq by saying, "I think that the reports that you provide to us really require a willing suspension of disbelief." Regarding the concurrent MoveOn.org ad controversy, Clinton voted against a Senate resolution condemning personal attacks on Petraeus, which passed 72-25. In September 2007 she voted in favor of a Senate resolution calling on the State Department to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps "a foreign terrorist organization", which passed 76-22.

In March 2007, in response to the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy, Clinton called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign, and launched an Internet campaign to gain petition signatures towards this end. In May 2007, following the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to narrowly interpret the time period in which equal pay discrimination complaints must be filed, Clinton vowed to introduce legislation to statutorily expand this timeframe. In November 2007, following the eventual resignation of Gonzales, Clinton missed the 53–40 vote confirming Michael Mukasey as the new Attorney General, but had earlier said she opposed the nomination.

In May and June 2007, regarding the high-profile, hotly debated comprehensive immigration reform bill known as the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, Clinton twice voted against amendments that would have derailed the bill, thus moving forward the bill's chance of passage. She introduced a failed amendment to facilitate legal immigrants bringing other family members into the country. After not announcing her position until a week before the vote, she ayed on a cloture motion to bring the overall bill to a vote, which failed. When the bill was again brought forward, she continued to vote in favor of cloture motions to consider it. In October, Clinton voted in favor of a small subset of the failed bill, the DREAM Act, but it too failed to gain cloture.

In October 2007, Clinton signed her name to a request from her and 40 other Democratic senators to Mark P. Mays, head of Clear Channel Communications and affiliate broadcaster of The Rush Limbaugh Show, to repudiate comments made by Rush Limbaugh that referred to certain U.S. servicemen as "phony soldiers".

Clinton has enjoyed high approval ratings for her job as Senator within New York, reaching an all-time high of 72 to 74 percent approving (including half of Republicans) over 23 to 24 percent disapproving in December 2006, before her presidential campaign became active; by August 2007, after a half year of campaigning, it was still 64 percent over 34 percent.

In February 2008, Clinton voted in favor of an expanded version of the economic stimulus package crafted by the House and President Bush. The bill would have added benefits to senior citizens, disabled veterans, and the unemployed, but narrowly failed to break a filibuster. Due to campaigning, Clinton missed the subsequent final vote for the House-Bush version, which passed easily 81–16 and became the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. A few days later, Clinton also missed a key vote on whether to strip telecommunications company retroactive immunity from a new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act update bill, an action that fell well short of passing; she similarly missed the final 68–29 vote on the Act updating.

During General Petraeus's April 2008 testimony before the Armed Services Committee, Clinton said that political progress in Iraq had not matched the security gains brought by the troop surge, that too much of the U.S. military was tied down in Iraq, and that "it's time to begin an orderly process of withdrawing our troops."

On June 24, 2008, Clinton received a warm reception as she returned to the Senate for the first time after the unsuccessful conclusion of her presidential campaign three weeks earlier.

As the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 reached a peak with the liquidity crisis of September 2008, Clinton proposed a revival of the New Deal-era Home Owners' Loan Corporation, to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. Writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, she said that "This is a sink-or-swim moment for America. We cannot simply catch our breath. We've got to swim for the shores." Regarding the proposed bailout of United States financial system, she initially pronounced the $700 billion rescue plan flawed, but said she would support it. On October 1, 2008, she voted in favor of the Senate legislation, HR1424, saying that it represented the interests of the American people; it passed the Senate 74–25.

Following the November 4, 2008, presidential election and the victory of Clinton's primary rival Barack Obama, Clinton requested a position within the Democratic Senate leadership or as a head of a potential task force to deal with health care reform. Party leaders did not want to dislodge any existing members, however, and no concrete offers came out of the talks, which continued after Obama offered a position in his cabinet to her.

On December 1, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced that Clinton would be his nominee for U.S. Secretary of State. Clinton said that "leaving the Senate is very difficult for me" and thanked New Yorkers, "who have for eight years given me the joy of a job I love, with the opportunity to work on issues I care about deeply, in a state that I cherish." Clinton's decision to leave the Senate set off a scramble to determine who Governor of New York David Paterson would name to replace her, and resulted in the brief entry into politics for the first time of Caroline Kennedy.

Later that month, during the automotive industry crisis of 2008, Clinton voted in favor of a $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers, but it failed to gain the 60 votes needed for cloture.

Confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee began on January 13, 2009, a week before the Obama inauguration; two days later, the Committee voted 16–1 to approve Clinton. Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was the lone dissenting vote in the committee. In anticipation of her confirmation as the 67th Secretary of State, Clinton attended an emotional farewell party on January 14, where said that being in the Senate “has been the greatest experience of my life” and that departing was “like leaving family.” Clinton cast her last Senate vote on January 15, supporting the release of the second $350 million for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, a measure which passed 52–42. She gave a final Senate address later that day, spending much of her time thanking her fellow members for their support after the events of September 11 and taking the unusual step of entering all of her staff's names into the Congressional Record. Later that night, she attended the final fundraiser possible to help retire her presidential campaign debt. The Manhattan event featured Jon Bon Jovi, and Clinton said it was a “very nostalgic and bittersweet time;” when she also said it was her last political event, some in the crowd of supporters shouted out "2016".

Following the inauguration of Obama, Clinton's confirmation was not done by voice vote the same day, due to objections from Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who was still concerned about financial disclosure procedures related to Bill Clinton. Clinton was then confirmed as Secretary of State in the Senate by a roll call vote of 94–2 on January 21, 2009. Vitter and Republican Jim DeMint of South Carolina voted against the confirmation. Clinton was administered the oath of office of Secretary of State by longtime friend Judge Kathryn A. Oberly, and resigned from the Senate the same day. On January 23, 2009, New York Governor David Paterson named Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand as Clinton's successor.