When nominees for George W. Bush’s new cabinet present themselves for confirmation on Capitol Hill, none is assured of an easier ride than General Colin Powell, the former Gulf War Chief-of-Staff who is to become Secretary of State in the new U.S. administration.The Republican conservative ideologues picked for some sensitive domestic portfolios under the Bush II regime are likely to face tough questions from a Senate where Democrat gains in November’s election have brought the two parties to 50:50 parity (although the casting vote will lie with Bush’s deputy Dick Cheney). But for Powell, who is widely perceived as “an authentic American hero” and a symbol of black success in public life, the confirmation process is a foregone conclusion.
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