Rice appears before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Think Progress has some highlights:

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) passionately argued against President Bush’s escalation plan during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today.

During questioning of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hagel called the new strategy “morally wrong” and “tactically, strategically, militarily wrong,” and declared, “I have to say, Madam Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.” Audience members in the hearing room clapped as Hagel concluded, “I will resist it.”

And lowlights:

Yesterday, President Bush announced to the nation that he plans to increase America’s presence in Iraq by approximately 22,000 troops, with no timetable for when troop levels would be drawn back down.

Today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried her best to make this escalation plan more palatable to the American public. “I think that I don’t see it, and the president doesn’t see it, as an escalation,” Rice told an incredulous Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE). Hagel responded, “Putting 22,000 new troops, more troops in, is not an escalation?” “I would call it, senator, an augmentation,” Rice said.

Did you get that...? It's not an "escalation", it's an "augmentation". Talk about a distinction without a difference!