Haley sails through confirmation hearings

Nikki Haley, sworn in last week as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, does not have a great deal of on-the-ground foreign policy experience. But she does have good sense, an independent mind and a willingness to speak out that should serve her well in her new post.

Haley had served as South Carolina’s governor since she was first elected in 2010. Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster was sworn in last week to succeed her.

Haley, 45, has been regarded as a rising star in the Republican Party for some time. She was tapped to offer the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union speech and was on the lists of many as a possible vice presidential candidate last year.

She supported U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in that race, and was openly critical at times of billionaire Donald Trump. Nonetheless, Trump chose her to serve at the U.N., where she is likely to become a key adviser to the president on foreign policy.

Unlike a number of Trump’s other appointees, Haley wasn’t harshly grilled by Democratic senators during her confirmation hearing. In the end, she breezed through the process with bipartisan 96-4 vote.

Haley clearly hewed to more mainstream conservative views during the hearing. She thinks the U.N. can be a useful institution in solving international disputes and building coalitions, saying, “the U.N. matters.”

But she also said the U.N. occasionally has overstepped. In her opening remarks, she was highly critical of the U.S. abstention and failure to veto a resolution this month that condemned Israel’s expansion of settlements on the West Bank. The measure subsequently passed 14-0.

She also said she would be reluctant to support the Paris Agreement on climate change and questioned the effectiveness of the agreement to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Notably, however, she also broke ranks with the Trump administration on Russia, criticizing President Vladimir Putin for the seizure of Crimea, military maneuvers in Ukraine and operations with President Bashar Assad in Syria. “You can’t trust them,” she said of the Russians.

This is one indication at least that she will be willing to speak truth to power, even with an administration that seems set on establishing a new alliance of sorts with Russia.

Haley also brings some diversity to the Trump Cabinet, which consists almost entirely of white men. Haley, a daughter of Sikhs from northern India who spent her childhood in modest surroundings in Bamberg, will bring a different life experience and a different outlook to the job.

Haley, as governor, could be combative, even intransigent at times in her dealings with the S.C. Legislature. But she also showed her ability to be a stalwart and compassionate leader in the wake of the Charleston shootings, when she gave her full support to removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, and during the tragic flooding that devastated much of South Carolina’s Midlands.

While she brings only modest foreign policy experience to her new post, she has the capacity to grow and learn on the job. The president would be well advised to listen to her in the days and months ahead.

This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Haley sails through confirmation hearings."