WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat to become secretary of state in the Obama administration, making her the public face to the world for the man who dashed her own hopes for the presidency, confidants of Mrs. Clinton said Friday.

The accord between the two leading figures of the Democratic Party was the culmination of a weeklong drama that riveted the nation's capital. President-elect Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton fought perhaps the most polarizing nomination battle in decades, but in recruiting her for his cabinet, Mr. Obama chose to turn a rival into a partner, and she concluded she could have a greater impact by saying yes than by remaining in the Senate.

Her selection is still to be formalized and will not be announced until after Thanksgiving. It would be yet another direction in the unlikely journey of a onetime political spouse in Arkansas who went on to build a political base of her own and become a symbol of achievement to many women.

The role, though a supporting one, would make her one of the most influential players on the international stage, and it would represent at least one more act for one of the nation's most prominent public families, as former President Bill Clinton would also become an ad hoc member of the Obama team.

The sometimes awkward dance between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton in the eight days since he invited her to Chicago for a meeting culminated in a telephone call on Thursday. Before the call, Mrs. Clinton was skeptical about the prospect of joining the cabinet, said her confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. But Mr. Obama addressed her concerns about access, personnel and other issues, leading her to conclude she should take the job, they said.

"She's ready," one of Mrs. Clinton's confidants said. The first meeting in Chicago "was so general" that she needed to have a better sense of how she would fit into Mr. Obama's administration, and the call helped her "just getting comfortable" with the idea of working together, the confidant said.

Mr. Obama's advisers said that although no offer had been formally accepted, her nomination was "on track" and would probably be announced after the holiday. Mrs. Clinton's Senate office broke a week of silence to acknowledge the talks but cautioned that they had not been made final.

"We're still in discussions, which are very much on track," said her spokesman, Philippe Reines. "Any reports beyond that are premature."

Mr. Obama wants to announce the members of his national security team at once. Advisers said he was weighing whether to make retired Gen. James L. Jones, a former Marine commandant and NATO supreme commander, his national security adviser, installing a formidable counterweight to Mrs. Clinton. The president-elect was still trying to decide whether to keep Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on an interim basis or install another choice to run the Pentagon right away.

The choice of Mrs. Clinton pleased many in the Democratic establishment who admire her strength and skills, and they praised Mr. Obama for putting the rancor of the campaign behind him. "Senator Clinton is a naturally gifted diplomat and would be an inspired choice if she is chosen by President-elect Obama as secretary of state," said Warren Christopher, who held that job under her husband.

But it could also disappoint many of Mr. Obama's supporters, who worked hard to have him elected instead of Mrs. Clinton and saw him as a vehicle for changing Washington. Mr. Obama argued during the primaries that it was time to move beyond the Clinton era and in particular belittled her claims to foreign policy experience as a first lady who circled the globe.

Advisers said Mr. Obama concluded after the election that the problems confronting the nation were so serious that he needed Mrs. Clinton's stature and capabilities as part of his team, notwithstanding their past differences. The bitterness that inhabited the Obama team for much of the year has faded with time, advisers said.

And many of the aides working on the transition with Mr. Obama are not campaign veterans with scars from the primaries, but rather former Clinton administration officials like Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, and John D. Podesta, the transition co-chairman, who admire Mrs. Clinton.

For Mrs. Clinton, becoming secretary of state would require her to sacrifice the independence that has come with a Senate seat and the 18 million votes she collected in the primary season. She has found it liberating the last eight years to speak for herself, not as someone's spouse. But friends said she could still have her voice while subordinating her ambitions to Mr. Obama's agenda.

"Hillary Clinton will always be seen as her own person," said Mickey Kantor, a longtime friend who served as commerce secretary in her husband's administration. "But you know, Hillary Clinton's a terrific lawyer. She knows how to represent a client, and she's good at it. And I don't have any doubt in my mind that she'll be a team player."

Mrs. Clinton had to accept that she might never become president, a former aide said. "There's a very small chance that she could run again," he said. "You're not going to be the president, so you want to make sure your next few years, which may be your last in public life, really make a mark."

Two advisers to Mrs. Clinton said she was concerned about establishing her role in the administration before agreeing to the job. She wanted assurances that she would have direct access to Mr. Obama and not need to go through a national security adviser, they said. And she wanted the authority to pick her own staff at the State Department.

This was particularly important because her relationships with members of Mr. Obama's foreign policy team fractured during the bruising primary season. Gregory B. Craig, a longtime friend of the Clintons who broke with them to back Mr. Obama and helped savage her foreign policy background during the primaries, was selected as White House counsel and removed from direct involvement with the secretary of state.

Mrs. Clinton wanted to avoid the situation that faced another celebrity chosen as secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, who found hawks like John R. Bolton given top jobs under him after he took the job under President Bush.

"Powell had to take neocons like Bolton, and that just created problems," said one Clinton adviser. "On the other hand, it would be dreadful if only Clinton loyalists worked at State and Obama loyalists at the N.S.C.," the National Security Council.

It is also not clear how Mrs. Clinton's selection would affect the role and influence of Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose expertise in foreign policy was a main reason Mr. Obama chose him for the job.

Another complication was Mr. Clinton, whose extensive business and philanthropic activities around the world could pose conflicts of interest. Lawyers for both sides spent days combing through his finances and crafting guidelines for his future activities.

People close to the vetting said Mr. Clinton turned over the names of all 208,000 donors to his foundation and library and agreed to every condition requested by Mr. Obama's transition team, including restrictions on his paid speeches and his role at his international foundation. The lawyers agreed to notify all of the donors that their identities would be revealed to the Obama team, but it was not clear if they would all be made public.

Mrs. Clinton would bring a distinctive background to the State Department. As first lady, she traveled the world for eight years, visiting more than 80 countries, not only meeting with foreign leaders but also visiting villages, clinics and other remote areas that rarely get on a president's itinerary.

While Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama agree most of the time on foreign policy, during the campaign she made a point of highlighting their differences, seeking to paint him as unsophisticated. Now those differences will be brought into stark relief as she seeks to become into Mr. Obama's emissary to the world.

On Iran, for instance, Mrs. Clinton staked a position during the primaries to the right of Mr. Obama. She voted in favor of a measure more hawkish than what even most of the Bush administration had been willing to venture, asking Mr. Bush to declare Iran’s 125,000-member Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization. Mr. Obama did not show up to vote that day but said that if he had, he would have opposed the bill.

Many Iran experts criticized the bill, saying it was similar to Iran's declaring the United States military a terrorist organization because it carried out Mr. Bush's orders. Even some members of the Clinton campaign's foreign policy team at the time privately disagreed with the vote.

But the bigger fight between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama was over the issue of talking to Iran, which Mrs. Clinton could soon find at the top of her portfolio. When during a debate Mr. Obama termed "ridiculous" the notion of not talking to adversaries, Mrs. Clinton sharply criticized him, calling that position "irresponsible and frankly naive."

The difference between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama on the issue is more perception than reality, advisers to both now say. Mr. Obama has said he would have a lower-level envoy do preparatory work for a meeting with Iran's leaders first, and Mrs. Clinton has said she favors vigorous diplomacy and lower-level contacts as well.

"She's not against talking to enemies; it was a question of how it's done," said Martin Indyk, the former United States ambassador to Israel. "That was the critical issue."

On Israel, the other chronic foreign policy issue that will bedevil the next secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton would bring baggage as well. She is seen as fiercely loyal to Israel, which can be both a plus and a minus, Middle East experts say.

While her pro-Israel record as a senator from New York might cause her to be viewed with suspicion in the Arab world, it could give her credibility to ask Israel to make tough choices for peace.




By Peter Baker and Helene Cooper, The New York Times, November 21, 2008

Barack Obama appears intent on naming an experienced and centrist foreign policy team, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser, sources said yesterday.

A friend of Clinton's said she is ready to accept an appointment that would make the former Obama rival his point person in tackling an array of international crises and restoring the United States' influence around the world, a frequently stated objective of the incoming administration.

Although the Obama transition team and Clinton's Senate spokesman said nothing has been finalized, her office for the first time officially confirmed that she is talking to Obama about the job. "We're still in discussions, which are very much on track. Any reports beyond that are premature," said Philippe Reines, Clinton's spokesman and senior adviser.

Meanwhile, several sources said that Jones has moved to the top of the list to be Obama's national security adviser and that the sides are in advanced talks. Sources familiar with the discussions said Obama is considering expanding the scope of the job to give the adviser the kind of authority once wielded by powerful figures such as Henry A. Kissinger.

The Jones appointment would put the onetime Marine Corps commandant and NATO commander in charge of managing an interagency process that many Democratic foreign policy experts say has been broken under the Bush administration.

With many Democrats expecting Robert M. Gates to remain as defense secretary, the emerging national security team appears to be centrist in orientation, with deep experience in many of the areas likely to be the focus of Obama's foreign policy -- including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and instability in Pakistan and the Middle East, where Obama advisers have been signaling a desire to make an early mark in the stalled peace process.

While there has been much discussion about the president-elect's purported interest in creating a "team of rivals" in his Cabinet, the emerging group could also be one that works well together. Gates is widely known for being a nonpartisan, congenial manager, while Jones is considered by many who know him to be a self-effacing general who "wears power very gracefully," as one put it. That probably is part of their appeal to Obama, some Democrats said.

One wild card would be Clinton, who clashed sharply with Obama over foreign policy during their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination but worked hard for the party's ticket in the fall. And the past few days have brought increasing signs that, after some hesitation, Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, want her to take the job. That position comes after the Obama and Clinton sides came to an agreement on how to handle potential conflicts with Bill Clinton's activities.

"It seems more likely today, versus a few days ago, that she will accept," one Clinton loyalist said yesterday.

Obama has also been meeting with possible candidates for other posts, including director of national intelligence. One name that has surfaced as a possibility in recent days is retired Adm. Dennis Blair, a former chief of the U.S. Pacific Command. Others said to be possibilities include John Brennan, a former CIA analyst who worked his way up the agency ladder, and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.). A member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a former Army officer and businessman, Hagel has strong Capitol Hill support and is respected within the national security community as a nonpartisan analyst of intelligence issues.

Sources said the announcement of the national security appointments will be made on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

In picking Jones, Obama would be sending a powerful sign that he wants to conduct a nonpartisan national security policy. Jones is also close to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), his colleague as a military liaison to Capitol Hill in the 1970s, and stayed publicly neutral during the presidential campaign, though he quietly provided advice to Obama in telephone conversations, according to a source who knows both men. Jones is one of the few public figures who probably would have been courted for government service regardless of the election's outcome.

"He would bring a lot of the military dimension to the job," said Wesley K. Clark, a retired four-star general who was one of Jones's predecessors as NATO commander. "And his nonpartisanship at this juncture is really important. He provides a nonpartisan standard for the national interest -- that would be the presumption given his previous experience."

Said Jessica Tuchman Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: "I think that would be a very strong appointment. He's got very broad experience, both geographically and substantively, and he's been outstanding in everything he's done."

Mathews and other officials said they expected that Jones would also help impose order in the national security bureaucracy. Over the course of the Bush administration, national security advisers Condoleezza Rice and Steven J. Hadley have been criticized by some for not resolving interagency conflicts, although some of those disputes have receded in recent years.

Jones "is certain to be viewed as a very formidable figure," said David Rothkopf, who served in the Clinton administration and wrote a book about the NSC. "This is a general right out of central casting. He is extremely strong and forceful and thoughtful. . . . If you want a disciplined NSC process, this is your man."

Jones also has experience with many of the big issues that will confront the new administration. As NATO commander, he was intimately involved in assembling troops and other resources for the mission in Afghanistan. He also knows something about energy, a subject the Obama team expects to figure prominently in foreign policy discussions. Jones currently heads the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy.

He is known for being low-key but blunt: Journalist Bob Woodward wrote that Jones told then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace that he "should not be the parrot on the secretary's shoulder," referring to Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Sources said another possibility for the national security job is James B. Steinberg, a close Obama adviser who was deputy national security adviser to Clinton, but Jones appears to be the strong favorite.

Sources also said yesterday that Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has emerged as a leading contender for interior secretary. The son of a migrant worker who grew up in Tucson, Grijalva boasts a strong environmental record and chairs the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands.

Also yesterday, transition officials announced the selection of five new White House staff members.

Patrick Gaspard, a longtime labor activist, will be the White House political director. He served as national political director for much of Obama's general-election campaign and was named deputy director of personnel for the transition effort. Prior to his work with Obama, Gaspard was a political operative for the Service Employees International Union.

Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. named Cynthia Hogan as his counsel. She has been his legal adviser since 1991, when she became a counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Biden also named Moises V. Vela Jr. as his director of administration. Vela, a businessman in Denver, was a chief financial officer and senior adviser on Hispanic affairs for Vice President Al Gore.

Incoming first lady Michelle Obama has tapped Jackie Norris, who was Iowa state director for the Obama campaign, to be her chief of staff. Norris, a high school government and history teacher and longtime Iowa Democrat, was Iowa political director for Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and was finance director for future Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack in 1998.

In addition, the vice president-elect's wife, Jill Biden, has named Catherine M. Russell to be her chief of staff. A former adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, she served as chief of staff for Jill Biden during the campaign and is the wife of Thomas E. Donilon, a co-chairman of Obama's transition team for the State Department.

By Michael Abramovitz, Shailagn Murray and Anne E. Kornblut, The Washington Post, November 22, 2008

Hillary Rodham Clinton, a first lady turned senator turned almost-president, is now transforming herself again, this time into the nation's top diplomat. But she is also back to a role she cannot seem to shake: a canvas for women's highest hopes and deepest fears about the workplace.

As she pondered this week whether to trade her hard-won independence and elected office for a job working for a more powerful man, mothers and schoolteachers and law partners mulled in tandem with her. After eight years of building her own constituency, how could Mrs. Clinton surrender it? they asked. Is secretary of state a promotion or an acknowledgment that her political prospects are now limited? And ultimately, how well will her male boss treat her?

As news spread on Friday evening that Mrs. Clinton had decided to accept the job, so did a basic consensus: the assignment was probably a triumph for Mrs. Clinton, if a costly one.

Gloria Steinem said in an interview, "Secretary of state is far superior to vice president, because it's involved in continuously solving problems and making policy and not being on standby."

Liz Kuoppala, a City Council member in Eveleth, Minn., said, "As a senator, you're just 1 of 100, and she's had to play quiet and polite."

"I think this will allow her to blossom," Ms. Kuoppala added. "It's good for women everywhere."

On pro-Clinton e-mail lists, supporters were already calling their heroine the next George Marshall, a figure who would reshape the world while President-elect Barack Obama becomes entangled in the sinking economy.

Their case for Mrs. Clinton's decision as feminist triumph has gone something like this: Ten years ago, she was still a first lady whose hairstyles were the subject of late-night jokes; now she will be the world's top diplomat. She may still be in a more powerful man's shadow, but being married to a president and working for one are worlds apart. And Mrs. Clinton is such an esteemed figure, no one will see her as a mere emissary.

"If she mishandles a negotiation between two disputing nations, she can't blame that on somebody else," said Christine C. Quinn, the first female speaker of the New York City Council and a longtime political friend of Ms. Clinton. "She will be the one on the line, just as she is as a senator."

And in terms of sheer impact, the imprint she leaves on the world and on history, the State Department would offer a more global platform than the Senate. "I always come back to what Hillary wants, which is to do the most important work she can do, the biggest work," said Susie Tompkins Buell, a longtime supporter and friend of Mrs. Clinton from San Francisco.

But there are corresponding worries: that Mrs. Clinton will have to compete with Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. for influence, that Mr. Obama, just months ago her mortal rival, will not trust her fully with assignments.

Some are sad to see Mrs. Clinton, who recently made a bid to lead health care reform in the Senate but walked away empty-handed, part from her core issue.

Nancy B. White, a retired school administrator in Bloomington, Ind., who cheered Mrs. Clinton on in primary rallies last spring, wishes Ms. Clinton would have stayed on Capitol Hill.

"I would have told her to hang tough in Congress and work on health care," Ms. White said.

Like many others interviewed, Marie C. Wilson, president of the White House Project, a women's leadership organization, said she would like to have seen Mrs. Clinton as Senate majority leader, a situation she now knows will never happen.

"I feel real mixed about this. I think it's better for women to be their own boss," Ms. Wilson said, pointing out that more governors than senators had become president in recent times.

The fledgling Obama administration is a mostly male club, with figures like Rahm Emanuel, Eric H. Holder Jr. and Timothy F. Geithner filling or expected to fill top positions, and in recent days, some speculated that Mrs. Clinton was selected, at least in some small part, because she was a woman.

Throughout Mrs. Clinton's presidential run, women across the country saw in her a mirror of their own career fortunes: when she teared up just before the New Hampshire primary that she was expected to lose, they remembered their own workplace humiliations, and when she lost the Democratic nomination, many saw it as an accumulation of all-too-familiar sexist slights. Now several of those interviewed said her selection as secretary of state - the third woman to hold the position - said nothing much about gender at all.

"The question of whether one has one's own political power or goes to work for someone else is not only a feminist question," Ms. Steinem pointed out.

Ms. Quinn agreed, "If she was a guy going to work for a guy, nobody would ask if it was a diminution of her voice."

"Our country has been shunned by our allies, been rejected off of the world stage," she continued. "The president, who has a job that you have the deepest respect for, says 'You are our gal, put our country back on the world stage.' Unless you are blind with ambition, how can you walk away from it? It's a calling too great for somebody who has a deep sense of patriotism and duty."




By Jodi Kantor, The New York Times, November 21, 2008

It's time for the U.S. to reengage in the Mideast peace process.

Some years ago, the Irish politician and writer Conor Cruise O'Brien proposed this taxonomy of intractable international conflicts. They could be divided, he said, into "problems," which have solutions, and "situations," which can only have outcomes.

Among the most unyielding of the latter he placed South Africa, Northern Ireland and the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. At the time, O'Brien's dichotomy seemed an expression of tragic wisdom. History, however, has a way of humbling even the wise. No one could have had the foresight to envision what the dealings between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk would accomplish, nor imagined how far previously hard men -- like Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and David Trimble -- might bend.

That leaves the Middle East, where -- for all the distractions of the global economic crisis -- President-elect Barack Obama and his secretary of State-designate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have an opportunity to push for peace and to reaffirm the centrality of the special relationship between the United States and Israel.

Anyone who doubts that should give close attention to an extraordinary interview with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a thorough English translation of which appears for the first time in the New York Review of Book's Dec. 4 issue. (You can read the whole thing online at nybooks.com/articles.) The interview is a translation of an extended conversation Olmert had with Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer, who are -- respectively -- columnist and senior political correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest daily newspaper.

When this writer first met Olmert years ago, he was one of the right-wing Likud party's rising stars. He was smart, articulate, charming -- and utterly unyielding when it came to accommodation with the Palestinians or other Arabs. He made his name by opposing Menachem Begin's peace agreement with Egypt because it meant giving back the Sinai.

A great deal has changed since then, including Olmert's mind. As he told Yedioth Ahronoth, "We must reach an agreement with the Palestinians, meaning a withdrawal from nearly all, if not all, of the [occupied] territories. Some percentage of these territories would remain in our hands, but we must give the Palestinians the same percentage [of territory elsewhere] -- without this, there will be no peace."

Olmert even dismissed the settler movement he once encouraged: "Who seriously thinks that if we sit on another hilltop, on another 100 meters, this will make a difference for Israel's basic security?"

Olmert told the journalists that he believes Israel is "very close to reaching agreements" with both the Palestinians and Syrians. When asked whether an accord with Damascus was within reach, the prime minister replied: "Yes, also with the Syrians. What we need first and foremost is to make a decision. I'd like to know if there's a serious person in the state of Israel who believes that we can make peace with the Syrians without, in the end, giving up the Golan Heights."

Olmert even argued that Israel must be ready to make territorial concessions in Jerusalem, where he once was mayor and which the Israeli right has long declared to be indivisible. He said there would have to be "special arrangements made for the Temple Mount and the holy/historical sites," but he was unequivocal that the city would have to be divided.

"Whoever talks seriously about security in Jerusalem ... must be willing to relinquish parts of Jerusalem. ... This decision is difficult, awful, a decision that contradicts our natural instincts, our deepest yearnings, our collective memories and the prayers of the nation of Israel for the past 2,000 years. I was the first person who wanted to maintain Israeli control over the entire city. I confess. I'm not trying to retroactively justify what I've done for the past 35 years. For a significant portion of those years I wasn't ready to contemplate the depth of this reality."

A close associate of Olmert's recently told the New York Times that the outgoing prime minister "is part of a group of onetime rightists who now seek a negotiated two-state solution largely because [they recognize] a change in Palestinian attitudes."

Obama and Clinton ought to move quickly to seize the opportunity. The flexibility to achieve moral progress through change is one of the characteristics of liberal democracies like the United States and Israel.

The common values of liberal democracy are the real basis for the special relationship between our two nations, and nothing would affirm or honor them more than constructive American engagement in a renewed Middle East peace process.




By Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with the enthusiastic support of the left wing of his party, fueled by his vehement opposition to the decision to invade Iraq and by one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.

Yet his reported selections for two of the major positions in his Cabinet - Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy Geithner as secretary of the Treasury - suggest that Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.

The choices are as revealing of the new president as they are of his appointees - and suggest that, from its first days, an Obama White House will brim with big personalities and far more spirited debate than occurred among the largely like-minded advisers who populated President George W. Bush's first term.

But the names racing through the ether in Washington about the choices to follow also suggest that Obama continues to place a premium on deep experience. He is widely reported to be considering asking Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, to stay on for a year; and he is thinking about Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander and Marine Corps commandant, for national security adviser, and placing Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary whom Obama considered putting back in his old post, inside the White House as a senior economic adviser.

"This is the violin model: Hold power with the left hand, and play the music with your right," David Rothkopf, a former Clinton official who wrote a history of the National Security Council, said on Friday, as news of Clinton's and Geithner's appointments leaked. "It's teaching us something about Obama: While he wants to bring new ideas to the game, he is working from the center space of American foreign policy."

The reason, several of Obama's transition team members say, is that they believe that the new administration will have no time for a learning curve. With the country facing a deep recession or worse, global market turmoil, chaos in Pakistan and a worsening war in Afghanistan, "there's going to be no time for experimentation," a member of the Obama foreign policy team said.

That explains Obama's first selection - Rahm Emanuel, another centrist Democrat and former member of the Clinton White House, as his chief of staff.

In some ways, the choices made so far are reminiscent of the way the last senator to be elected president - John F. Kennedy - chose a Cabinet. As president-elect, Kennedy quickly picked three top officials significantly more conservative than he was: Dean Rusk as secretary of state, Robert McNamara as secretary of defense and Douglas Dillon, a Republican, as secretary of the Treasury. They helped him navigate the Cuban missile crisis, but also got him get bogged down in Vietnam.

Of all the choices Obama has made so far, it is the selection of Clinton that appears the biggest gamble, in part because she has never had to engage in the give-and-take of high-stakes diplomacy, and in part because no one really knows how she will mesh with the Obama White House.

Now the question is less one of ideological differences than whether a Clinton State Department could become something like Colin L. Powell's: an alternative, though weak, power center that made little secret of its differences with the White House.

"Anyone who tells you they really know how this is going to work out," one senior transition official said Thursday, "is telling less than the truth."

If Clinton is taken from the "Team of Rivals" model, Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, is from the Team of Neutrals.

"He's no liberal," said a former colleague at the Treasury Department, where he managed the U.S. response to the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s.

At the time Geithner developed a reputation as the ultimate pragmatist, putting together a package of more than $100 billion in aid to halt the financial contagion. That turned out to be a training session for his role, a decade later, in the bailouts of Bear Stearns, AIG and the injection of nearly $350 billion in congressionally authorized money, whose exact use has become something of a political football.

Geithner grew up in Asia - in Tokyo, New Delhi and Bangkok - and keeps his ego well in check. He asks a lot of questions, but does not have Summers' overwhelming - some say overbearing - personality.

"He clicked with Obama," one outside adviser said. "If you think about it, their sort of cool, distant styles are alike."

By David E. Sanger, International Herald Tribune, November 22, 2008

To succeed at modern diplomacy, it helps to take the long view. As word trickled out that President-elect Barack Obama was considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, Clinton was on the phone with the President of Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari was calling with a long-overdue thank-you. Back in 1998, when Zardari's late wife Benazir Bhutto was powerless and out of favor with the United States, the then First Lady had received her at the White House, over the objections of both the State Department and the National Security Council. Bhutto eventually regained her influence, and before her assassination last December, became an important U.S. ally. But she had never forgotten that act of graciousness, Zardari told Clinton on Nov. 14. "To be treated with such respect was very important."

As he wrapped up his second week as President-elect, it was clear that Obama was taking the long view in both diplomacy and politics. How else to explain the fact that he had all but offered the most prestigious job in his Cabinet to a woman whose foreign policy experience he once dismissed as consisting of having tea with ambassadors? Or that Clinton might accept an offer from a man whose national-security credentials, she once said, began and ended with "a speech he made in 2002"? Nowhere did Obama and Clinton attack each other more brutally last spring than on the question of who was best equipped to handle international relations in a dangerous world. That they could be on the brink of becoming partners in that endeavor is the most remarkable evidence yet that Obama is serious about his declared intention to follow another Illinois President's model in assembling a "team of rivals" to run his government, in what could be a sharp contrast with the past 40 years of American Presidents. "I've been spending a lot of time reading Lincoln," Obama told Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. "There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was President, that I just find very helpful."

And a shrewdness as well. The surprising proffer to Clinton came the same week that Obama sat down with John McCain in Chicago and helped engineer a commutation for Senator Joe Lieberman, who had backed McCain in the election and faced possibly being stripped of his committee chairmanship. The general amnesty campaign, part of a promise to change the way Washington works, impressed some longtime partisans. "It's brilliant," says a senior Republican Party official. "My hat is totally off to the guy." Viewed more cynically, bringing Clinton into the tent could co-opt a potential adversary in 2012 and put a leash on her globetrotting husband, who has a propensity for foreign policy freelancing. Which raises a question: Would this move, if it happens, be just the first manifestation of that new kind of politics that Obama was promising in his presidential campaign? Or proof that he understands the oldest kind all too well?

However smart it might ultimately prove to be, the Clinton offer is likely to induce grumbling among some Obama loyalists. The job Obama dangled in front of Clinton has excited a frenzy of speculation and leaking - exactly the kind of thing the no-drama Obama operation did not tolerate during the presidential campaign. And coming amid word that Obama is eyeing an array of former Clinton officials - including former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder for the top job at Justice - even Democrats began to ask how much change Obama really represents. "What were the last two years all about?" asks one exasperated party strategist. "The restoration of the Clintons?"

By Karen Tumulty and Massimo Calabresi, Time, November 20, 2008

Vendors still owed money from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign could be out of luck for years should she become secretary of state.

Mrs. Clinton still had about $7.9 million in outstanding bills from her presidential campaign at the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said she has since whittled it to $7.6 million, not including the $13.2 million she loaned her campaign out of her own pocket, which officials have said she does not expect to be repaid; the time period for which she needed to be reimbursed under campaign finance laws has now passed.

"Senator Clinton has said that paying off her campaign vendors is a priority for her," Mr. Reines said in a statement, "and she remains committed to that goal."

But the Hatch Act, which governs the political activities of federal employees, including cabinet officials, normally prohibits the solicitation and receipt of political contributions.

Mrs. Clinton's situation is unusual because she is collecting money not for an active campaign but an old one, her failed presidential bid.

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the United States Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the Hatch Act, cited a 2001 advisory opinion issued by the agency that stipulated a federal employee seeking to retire campaign debt incurred before federal employment would be barred from personally soliciting the donations, though the "campaign organization of a candidate who later becomes a federal employee may continue to organize and promote fundraising events to retire campaign debt."

In other words, Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign committee could technically continue to raise money towards retiring her debt but with little involvement on her part - which could severely hamper those fund raising efforts.

The advisory opinion said that the former candidate cannot "assist in promoting the event and may not otherwise actively participate in such events."

On the other hand, it said that the former candidate could attend the fund-raising events, "be recognized and briefly state his appreciation to all whose efforts contributed to the retirement of his campaign debt" but any participation beyond "this passive role" would violate the law.

There is the obvious question of appearances, however, which would complicate any efforts by Mrs. Clinton to continue to raise money.

"The problem might come in potential conflicts of interests," said Jim Kahl, a former deputy general counsel of the F.E.C. and a former official in the Office of Special Counsel.

Campaign finance experts said if she joins the Obama cabinet, Mrs. Clinton would almost certainly shutter her political action committee, HillPac, but could leave her Senate re-election committee for 2012 and presidential campaign committee dormant.

Another outside possibility is that Mrs. Clinton could successfully petition the election commission to forgive her debts, citing the fund-raising restrictions facing her as secretary of state. The commission would have to evaluate whether Mrs. Clinton had exhausted all reasonable means to pay down her debt.

But Mr. Kahl said he believed it was "highly unlikely" that the commission would grant such a request, considering federal rules would still allow her campaign committee to continue to raise money, albeit under some constraints.

"These debt settlements can go on for years," Mr. Kahl said.

Indeed, former Senator John Glenn, Ohio Democrat, struggled for more than two decades to pay off more than $3 million in debt he had left over from his 1984 presidential run until the F.E.C. finally granted him a reprieve.

Mrs. Clinton may also be able to negotiate down some of her debts, but campaign finance rules that limit her ability to do so to prevent vendors from being able to provide gifts to candidates that exceed donation limits.

Campaign finance experts were hard-pressed to recall any cabinet official facing a similar situation to what Mrs. Clinton would be confronting.

"There have been members of Congress appointed to cabinet positions," said Lawrence H. Norton, a former general counsel to the F.E.C. "If they had campaign debt, it wasn't as notorious as hers is and probably not as substantial."

According to Bob Biersack, a commission. spokesman, former Gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona still had a debt of more than $128,000 from a presidential bid in 1988 when he was appointed to President Clinton's cabinet as interior secretary in 1993.

Campaign finance records show he did not raise any money to pay down his presidential debt while he was in the administration until 2001. Mr. Babbitt's presidential campaign was shuttered in 1998, but it is unclear from the records exactly what became of his debt.

At this point, most of the outstanding debts owed by Mrs. Clinton are to political consultants, as opposed to small businesses from primary and caucus states, whom campaign officials said they worked to pay back first.

The largest outstanding bill, according to the most recent campaign finance records, was $5.3 million owed to her pollster, Mark Penn.

The next biggest remaining debt was $831,414 to MSHC Partners, a direct mail firm.

Kenneth Gross, a campaign finance lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, said there could easily be even less palatable scenarios for Mrs. Clinton's creditors: "It'd be worse if she were on the Supreme Court."




By Michael Luo, The New York Times, November 19, 2008

Uncertainty over Hillary Rodham Clinton's potential appointment as Secretary of State is rekindling interest in the creation of a new position for her in the Senate Democratic leadership, according to Democratic aides.

Discussion of the "new leadership role" for Clinton has gone on "for a couple of weeks" - pre-dating this week's negotiations over the job at State, said one staffer familiar with the situation.

"There was a lot of talk about having to do something for her," said a Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "That seemed unnecessary when the State thing popped up."

Now, some allies see such an appointment as a possible soft landing for the former first lady if she isn't tapped for Obama's cabinet - or if she rejects an offer.

The staffer said there's been no discussion of a specific title for Clinton in the Senate leadership - but that the post being envisioned would be outside the five existing Democratic leadership slots.

The new post would return Clinton to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's leadership circle: She served as chairwoman of the Democratic Steering Committee until stepping aside in 2006 for her presidential bid. She was replaced by Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow.

Some Democrats have reportedly been mulling creation of a Clinton-led task force that would have a research budget and staff, according to one Democratic staffer.

No decisions have been made pending resolution of the agonizingly slow - and uncharacteristically public - back-and-forth between Clinton and the transition team.

Politico has reported that a Clinton appointment at State could be announced before Thanksgiving. But some close to the former first lady say she's torn about taking a role in the new administration at the expense of her Senate seat.

By Amie Parnes, Glenn Thrush, Politico, November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has reduced the size of her presidential campaign debt to less than $7.5 million as of Nov. 1, according to campaign finance reports filed Thursday.

The documents show Clinton raised nearly $690,000 in October, a minor sum compared with the $218 million she amassed in her failed presidential bid.

Of the $7.5 million owed to vendors, nearly $5.4 million was to her former adviser and pollster, Mark Penn. Clinton owed vendors a high of $12 million at the end of June. That was the month she abandoned her presidential campaign and ceded the Democratic nomination to now President-elect Barack Obama.

The amount she owes Penn has been her longest outstanding debt.

She also lent herself nearly $13.2 million. Under federal law Clinton can only repay herself $250,000 with private donations. The report also showed that she had nearly $1 million cash on hand at the end of October.

Obama is considering Clinton for secretary of state. As a Cabinet member Clinton would face fundraising restrictions to retire her vendor debt.

A 2001 advisory opinion by the federal Office of Special Counsel said a federal employee who still had a campaign debt would be prohibited from "personally soliciting, accepting or receiving political contributions."

Clinton could name an agent from her campaign committee to continue to organize and hold fundraising events to retire the debt. Clinton would be limited to attending a fundraising event and simply stating her appreciation to donors.

The Associated Press, November 20, 2008

Democratic leaders in the Senate are prepared to give Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton a still-undefined leadership role there if she does not become Barack Obama's secretary of state, Democratic officials close to the situation said.

The discussions about an enhanced position for Clinton are factoring into her deliberations over joining the cabinet, the officials said Thursday. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, is wrestling with whether to become the nation's top diplomat or to remain in a chamber where lack of seniority limits her influence.

Clinton asked to join the Senate Democratic leadership after the Nov. 4 election, and party leaders began trying to figure out a way to accommodate her without dislodging any of the current leaders, Democratic officials said. The conversations, they added, preceded Obama's approach to her about becoming secretary of state and are on the table if she turns down the job.

Although advisers to Obama have said he has not made a formal offer, most Democrats believe the decision is hers to make, and friends said Thursday that she was wavering.

At the end of a confused day in which even Obama's advisers seemed unsure what was happening, a transition official said Thursday night that the president-elect's team believed things were on track with Clinton and that her nomination could be announced next week.

The uncertainty, a week after Obama met with Clinton to discuss the idea of her leading the State Department, kept Washington spinning in feverish speculation about whether the two former rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination would team up. Clinton was keeping counsel only with a tight circle of confidants, leaving even prominent veterans of the Clinton political operation guessing as to her intentions.

But driving her consideration, friends said, is a sense of disenchantment with the Senate, where despite her stature she remains low in the ranks of seniority that governs the body. She was particularly upset, they said, at the reception she felt she received when she returned from the campaign after collecting 18 million votes and almost becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party.

"Her experience in the Senate with some of her colleagues has not been the easiest time for her," said one longtime friend who insisted on anonymity in exchange for sharing Clinton's sentiments. "She's still a very junior senator. She doesn't have a committee. And she's had some disappointing times with her colleagues."

In particular, the friend said, Clinton was upset when the leadership rejected the possibility of her heading a special new task force with a staff and a mandate to develop legislation expanding health care coverage.

In dismissing the idea, Senate leaders noted that Senator Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the health committee, planned to play the leading role in shaping a plan for universal coverage even as he battles brain cancer. In the current Congress, Clinton is eighth in seniority among the Democrats on Kennedy's committee.

Other Democratic officials said Clinton had then wanted to serve in a broader leadership role, perhaps as chairwoman of the Democratic Policy Committee, a sort of internal "think tank" with a staff, a budget and office space. But the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, refused to give her that post, because he did not want to force out the current chairman, Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the officials said.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Clinton, said it was "nothing but poppycock" to suggest that she had wanted to push Dorgan aside. Reines scoffed at the notion that his boss was disaffected. "As her colleagues on both sides of the aisle will tell you," he said, "Senator Clinton doesn't get disappointed. She gets to work."

Senate Democrats gathered Tuesday to re-elect their leadership, including Dorgan, without offering any of the top slots to Clinton.

But Reid told those at the closed-door meeting that he was looking for a way to create a new leadership role for her, two people who were in the room said.

Reid wants to come up with some sort of leadership position to recognize Clinton's standing as one of the party's most popular figures, and aides said he was confident that he could arrive at something with sufficient muscle to appeal to her.

Democratic officials said Clinton had not tried to use the Obama discussions to gain leverage with the Senate leadership. "The fact is that this is something that the leadership has been working on for a few weeks now," a senior Senate aide said.

By Peter Baker and Helene Cooper, International Herald Tribune, November 21, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is on track to be nominated for secretary of state in the Obama administration, transition aides said on Thursday night.

Days of back and forth followed the meeting between President-elect Barack Obama and Clinton last week in Chicago, when the two principals first discussed the post, with advisers to Clinton suggesting she might not want the job and questions persisting about the business work and international ties of her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

But the former president agreed to a thorough vetting, and Obama advisers did not back away from reports that the New York senator was the president-elect's top pick. On Thursday night, aides said that the vetting issues have been resolved, and the selection could occur soon, perhaps immediately after Thanksgiving.

By Anne E. Kornblut, The Washington Post, November 20, 2008

As Hillary Rodham Clinton inches toward becoming secretary of state, Latino advocates are asking: Whither Bill Richardson?

The New Mexico governor has been the best hope for a Latino to land a high-ranking post in the new administration. But Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and energy secretary, appears to have lost out to Clinton -- although he could land another Cabinet post, perhaps at Interior.

Still, anxiety is running high among Latino leaders because Obama has yet to name a Latino to a top White House or Cabinet position. This is on the minds of senior transition officials -- including Obama's designated chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel -- who are said to be considering Latino candidates for several Cabinet posts.

"The Obama transition team and the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, understand the role that the Latino vote played in this election, and I think we will see representation in the Obama Cabinet and at the White House," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza.

Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), a member of the House Democratic leadership, said he has been forwarding the names of Latino candidates "for every type of position you can think of in the federal government, from Cabinet on down."

"We can remember the days when people said we had no applications, or there's no one qualified," Becerra said. "Everyone understands that the days of excuses are over."

Becerra, who's been mentioned as a candidate for labor secretary, said he is "not looking" for an administration job.

At least four Latino candidates are said to be under consideration to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development: Miami Mayor Manny Diaz; Adolfo Carrion Jr., a longtime New York pol, and Bronx borough president; Saul Ramirez Jr., a former deputy HUD secretary; and Nelson A. Diaz, who has been a judge and a HUD general counsel.

As for Richardson, Murguia suggested he could serve as secretary of commerce or the interior. "Perhaps there's an ambassador role to China," she added.

By Al Kamen, The Washington Post, November 21, 2008

Over here at the Midwest branch of the White House, the game of musical chairs has shifted into high gear.

Just under a week after news broke that President-elect Barack Obama met with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to discuss naming her the Secretary of State, Obama's aides announced that the job of White House counsel was going to Gregory Craig, Obama's longtime foreign policy adviser.

Now, wasn't Craig supposed to be getting one of the foreign policy jobs, like deputy secretary of state or national security adviser? After all, he's been meeting with officials in the various embassies in Washington for months, getting advice on how a President Obama might handle everything from Iran's nuclear ambitions to Middle East peace negotiations to the worsening situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The official word out of the Obama camp was that Craig, who represented Bill Clinton during the House impeachment trial, was always viewed as a natural for White House counsel, a job that would take advantage of his years as a Washington powerhouse lawyer.

But several Obama advisers acknowledged privately that Craig couldn't take a foreign policy job if Clinton ended up at State - too much animosity and bad history there.

In fact, all of the foreign policy jobs in the administration have been held up because of the uncertainty over the appointment of Clinton. Once that's cleared up, Democratic aides said, the rest of the national security team will follow.

Meanwhile Craig, a close and trusted Obama adviser on foreign policy during the campaign, exited the sausage-making apparatus, and has ended up in what many believe is a much better place. As White House counsel he can roam the world of both foreign and domestic policy, engaging in everything from handling Guantanamo and torture to digging up skeletons from the Bush administration. "Everyone thinks it's a consolation prize," a senior Democratic adviser said. "In the protocol list it outranks national security adviser."

Speaking of which: If Clinton does not end up at State, then Jim Steinberg, the former deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, is at the top of the list for the national security adviser job. Steinberg could even get the job if Clinton takes Secretary of State, Democratic aides say, although some consideration might be given to whether Steinberg has the heft to keep Clinton's outsized personality in check.

Susan Rice, one of the earliest foreign policy advisers to sign on with Obama, also gets a new lease on life if Clinton is out of the running for Secretary of State. Like Craig, Rice worked for the Clinton administration, handling Africa policy during the 1990s.

But the two of them formed a tag team to debunk Clinton's claim to foreign policy experience during the campaign.

When 11,000 pages of Clinton's public schedule as first lady were released back in March, Craig said they showed that Clinton was out of the loop when critical foreign policy decisions were made and that her trips abroad were largely ceremonial.

"The fact is, and this was established by the White House schedules, that she did not attend NSC meetings or routinely meet with the Secretary of State or the National Security Adviser," said Craig, who was also a senior State Department official during the Clinton administration. "She did not routinely get briefed by the intelligence community, and there is no evidence that she participated or asserted herself in any of the crises that took place during the eight years of the Clinton presidency."

Rice, for her part, questioned the link between being First Lady and acquiring foreign policy knowledge. No question, it would be tough to put those three together at the helm of any Obama foreign policy team.

Rice could get the post of United States ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet-level position under President Bill Clinton. President George W. Bush downgraded the position when he came into office, but many expect that Obama could upgrade the job back to its old level, particularly if he appoints Rice.

Of course, if Clinton doesn't get the Secretary of State job, Democratic advisers say a whole host of opportunities open back up for all of the Obama foreign policy types who got on her bad side during the primaries.

By Helene Cooper, International Herald Tribune, November 21, 2008

Senator Hillary Clinton is likely to be nominated for secretary of state after the Nov. 27 U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, according to an aide to President-elect Barack Obama.

Potential hurdles related to the financial disclosures of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been worked out, said the aide, who asked not to be named. Clinton herself has indicated some hesitancy in accepting the position, according to news reports.

She has been wrestling with whether to abandon her independence to become the nation's top diplomat or remain in the Senate where a lack of seniority limits her influence, the New York Times reported yesterday.

The appointment, should the New York Democrat accept the post, would make her Obama's highest-ranking Cabinet official. Backers say the popularity of both Hillary and Bill Clinton overseas would be a boon to the U.S.'s global reputation.

"I think she should do it,'' said lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist who supported Clinton, 61, during the primaries. "She can have enormous impact in the world.''

A spokesman for Clinton didn't immediately respond to a telephone and e-mail request for comment made after working hours.

Third Woman

Clinton, who would become the third woman to hold the secretary of state post, frequently sparred with Obama on the campaign trail about foreign policy. She ran a television advertisement dubbed "3 a.m.,'' in which she questioned whether Obama, formerly a first-term senator from Illinois, was experienced enough to handle a national crisis.

Clinton traveled to Chicago last week to meet with Obama about the Cabinet position. The process had been complicated by concerns that Bill Clinton's private business interests with foreign governments and companies could create conflicts for his wife if she were nominated.

Bill Clinton sent Obama's transition team a list of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation, according to a Democrat familiar with the process.

"I'll do whatever they want,'' the former president told reporters in New York earlier this week.

The 200,000 or so names comprise the universe of donors to Clinton's presidential library and foundation. This is separate from the Clinton Global Initiative, which operates under the aegis of the foundation but does not directly take money from the donors.

By Kim Chipman and Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg, November 21, 2008

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Retired Marine Gen. James Jones emerged as a leading contender for White House national security adviser as President-elect Barack Obama worked on Thursday to assemble his foreign policy team.

New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton was on track to be named secretary of state, but a Democratic official said Obama was not planning to announce his foreign policy team until after Thanksgiving on November 27.

Clinton moved closer to taking the job of top U.S. diplomat after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, offered to allow ethics reviews of future business and charitable activities.

The Obama team had been concerned that some of the former president's globe-trotting activities, such as his philanthropy and paid speeches might pose a conflict of interest should his wife become secretary of state.

But financial disclosure issues have been ironed out, the Democratic official said.

Democratic sources said Jones, the former top operational commander of NATO, was in the running for the job of national security adviser along with James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton's administration.

An ABC News report said Jones was Obama's preferred candidate and the president-elect valued in particular his more-than four decades of military experience.

Jones is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans but has avoided aligning himself with either party.

He is known to have been a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war and is quoted as describing the war as a "debacle," in Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's 2006 book "State of Denial."

While refusing to confirm it, Jones has not disputed the quote, published while he was still serving at NATO.

Woodward also reported that Jones believed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had "systematically emasculated" the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Jones grew up largely in Paris, France, and graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

OVERSEAS UPBRINGING

The ABC News report said Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, feels a kinship with Jones because of his upbringing overseas.

The national security job coordinates among the various foreign policy players in the administration, including the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence. The person in that role would be Obama's closest adviser on foreign policy on a day-to-day basis.

As Obama was narrowing his choices for national security adviser, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano was seen by many Democrats as a strong contender to head the Homeland Security Department, created to protect Americans after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Napolitano, 50, is a former U.S. attorney for Arizona and state attorney general, giving her substantial law enforcement experience. As governor of a state that borders Mexico, she is closely involved in immigration issues, which also come under the department's jurisdiction.

Two Democratic sources said Napolitano was the leading candidate for the job.

ABC News also reported that retired Adm. Dennis Blair was the top candidate to be the director of national intelligence.

By Caren Bohan and Jeff Mason, Reuters, November 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - A few minutes after Representative Charles B. Rangel called a meeting of New York's Congressional delegation to order on Wednesday in his trademark fashion - putting two fingers to his lips to make a screeching whistle - he could not help joking about the elephants in the room.

As he introduced Charles E. Schumer, the state's senior senator, Mr. Rangel remarked that he was pleased to be in a room "full of potential junior senators from New York," according to one participant who spoke anonymously because the meeting was closed to the press.

The room rumbled with laughter.

Although the meeting's purpose was to discuss the state's approach for winning financial assistance from the federal government - the delegation decided it would fare better after Barack Obama takes office in January - the subtext was glaring. For the first time since Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's name was mentioned as a possible choice to be Mr. Obama's secretary of state, several of the people who could replace her in the Senate - and the man who will choose that person - were in the same room together. Mrs. Clinton, however, was not there.

Gov. David A. Paterson, who according to the United States Constitution would select a Senate replacement, said nothing to the delegation about the speculation, which has consumed Washington and Albany in the last week.

On his way out of the Capitol, Mr. Paterson said he had not given much thought to replacing Mrs. Clinton. "I don't think I have to start thinking until they do something," he said. "Meanwhile, I can use all that energy to try to save the state."

People who are familiar with Mr. Paterson's thinking on the matter have said in recent days that while the governor had not made a short list, he has discussed several names - including Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand of Hudson, Representative Brian Higgins of Buffalo and the Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrion Jr.

Mr. Paterson would prefer to have a candidate who is from upstate or is a woman or is Latino, according to people who know the governor's preferences but requested anonymity so they could speak openly about his thinking. And if he could find a candidate who satisfies more than one of those categories, all the better, those people said. If he cannot find a suitable candidate who meets those criteria, they said, he would prefer someone with high statewide name recognition who could withstand a challenge from Republicans in the next election.

No one from the delegation on Wednesday seemed to want to discuss the possibility that Mrs. Clinton's seat could come open.

"Ugh. I don't even want to comment on that," said Representative Jerrold Nadler.

Representative Carolyn Maloney insisted that she and her colleagues were not focused on the issue. "Nothing was said about that," she said. "We were focused on the economy."

As Ms. Gillibrand was rushing out of the Capitol, she brushed off a question about whether she would accept the job if offered. "I think that's highly premature," she said.

Mr. Higgins said he would not comment about being on what he called "the periphery of speculation."

Instead, members of New York's delegation were on message about the economy. In a press conference after their meeting, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Paterson and Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, said the delegation had decided to wait until January to start seriously pressing their case for federal assistance.

Mr. Paterson, in particular, has been very vocal in the last few months about New York's need for federal aid. Wednesday's visit was his second trip to Washington in two weeks. But delegation members said they decided their energy would be better spent after the new president took office and more Democrats were seated in Congress. President Bush and Republicans on Capitol Hill have resisted an aid package for the states.

"Unfortunately we're dealing with the remnants of those that lost the elections," Mr. Rangel said. "We have no choice except to go home."

Mr. Paterson said he would like Congress to act now but that he understood the political reality. "We don't really think we should wait until January to take action, but it appears that's the way it's going to be in Washington. And unless I hear otherwise, that's the way it's going to be in Albany."

Mr. Paterson was referring to the collapse on Tuesday of his effort to close New York's $1.5 billion budget deficit after Senate Republicans blocked it.

By Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, November 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for a former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who contested mightily for the presidency.

Obama transition aides described a process Thursday that appears on track to make Clinton the top diplomat in an Obama administration, just one week after the two first met in secrecy to discuss the idea.

The nomination would be a remarkable union between the former first lady who was an early favorite to win the presidency and the first-term senator who upset her in the primary and cruised to a general election victory. Such a high-profile seat in the Cabinet for Clinton also would be another achievement for the most accomplished former first lady in U.S. history, who has been the first presidential spouse to serve in the Senate and run for the White House herself.

Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to be an effective secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser said the president-elect has been enthusiastic about naming Clinton as secretary of state from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and that the advantages to her serving far outweighed potential downsides.

The advisers who explained Obama's plans and thinking did so on a condition of anonymity because he was not ready to formally announce his plans.

But transition aides told The Associated Press that the two camps have worked out financial disclosure issues involving Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the complicated international funding of his foundation that operates in more than 40 countries. The aides said Obama and Hillary Clinton have had substantive conversations about the secretary of state job.

Clinton has been mulling the post for several days, but the comments from the transition aides suggested that Obama's team does not feel she is inclined to turn it down. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines would not comment, except to say that anything about Cabinet appointments is for Obama's transition team to address.

Clinton would have to surrender her New York Senate seat, which she has held for eight years, to take the job.

The president-elect also is likely to choose Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be secretary of homeland security, top Obama advisers and several Democrats said Thursday as the shape of Obama's Cabinet begins to emerge.

The Obama advisers cautioned that no final decision has been made on putting Napolitano in charge of the Homeland Security Department, the massive agency created by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But the advisers said she was easily the top contender.

Thus far, Obama has informally selected Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as health secretary. The plans could be sidetracked by unexpected glitches in the final vetting process, officials note.

Among other Cabinet posts: Senior Democrats say there is a strong possibility that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would stay temporarily and later give way to former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Even so, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island also are said to be under consideration.

Democrats also say that several people remain in the running for treasury secretary, including Timothy Geithner, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Several news organizations reported Thursday that Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who was Obama's national campaign finance chairman, was his leading choice to become commerce secretary. However, Pritzker issued a statement Thursday saying she is not a contender for the post.

Officials say Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration, is in the running for the Commerce job.

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press, November 21, 2008

UPDATED, 11:30 pm: A Clinton adviser emails with some other thoughts about the seeming indecision by the New York Senator about the Secretary of State position.

"I think she's in legacy planning mode and needs to figure out how to make a mark over the next five years since that is her window," said the adviser, granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations. "After that, the jockeying among Democrats for president in 2016 begins and she will fade (assuming she isn't one of the Democrats running in 2016)."

The plot thickens...

ORIGINAL POST

So the question facing her is whether she can make a mark as one of 100 and as a senator that lacks a specific jurisdiction over the issues she cares most about vs having a set turf (in the state dept) and platform from which she can command a spotlight.

Although plenty of other political stories are sure to come and go over the next few days, there is only one MAJOR story out there: Will New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton be secretary of State in President-elect Barack Obama's Administration?

Ever since it was revealed late last week that the one-time rivals had huddled in Chicago to discuss the possibility of Clinton heading up the State Department, cable news, radio shows, newspapers, and online news sources have been dominated by speculation about whether she will take the job or not and why. (Set aside for the moment the potential complications presented by former President Bill Clinton's work in foreign countries and the financial disclosure issues regarding his presidential library fundraising that might arise during the vetting process.)

There is a growing sentiment that Clinton should just make up her mind already -- either say "yes" or "no" to avoid dragging the process out any longer. (Politico's Glenn Thrush, a veteran of the New York political scene, wrote a piece last night suggesting that Clinton remains undecided about what to do.)

While that sentiment is not unexpected, it is unrealistic based on what we know of Clinton and her thoughts on her own political future.

Talk to anyone who was a member of the Clinton campaign -- inner or outer circle -- and they will tell you that the New York senator was single-mindedly committed to winning the Democratic nomination and the White House until the day she decided to end her campaign.

Time and time again during the campaign when it looked like she simply could not overcome Obama's pledged delegate edge, we would ask Clinton aides whether she ever talked privately about the prospect of not winning. To a person, they insisted she never spoke about the possibility.

So, when she ultimately did concede, Clinton had only just begun to grapple with the idea that she would not now -- and might not ever -- be the president of the United States.

And, don't forget, that Clinton's six years in the Senate before she began running for president were generally regarded -- even by her critics -- as surprisingly productive and bipartisan. She clearly relished her role in the chamber and was, by almost all accounts, enjoying herself.

For a moment put yourself in Clinton's shoes. Imagine if a longtime life aspiration had been foreclosed relatively suddenly; you probably would not begin immediately to plot your next move, but rather would, almost assuredly, take some time to figure out what your options were and what you really wanted to do with the rest of your life.

So it is with Clinton, according to those familiar with her thinking.

"She is definitely unsure of what to do," said one Clinton adviser granted anonymity to speak candidly about the New York senator's state of mind. "She was flattered by the offer and thinks Senator Obama and his team have been good to work with."

The source added that if Clinton ultimately decides against the job, it won't be because of the vetting process but rather because her interest in domestic policy issues -- particularly health care and energy policy -- ultimately trumps her desire to play a large role on the foreign stage. (Clinton was chosen by Sen. Ted Kennedy on Tuesday to head a task force on health insurance reform.)

While that line of reasoning makes sense to us -- especially when considering that Clinton may have never even thought of the possibility that she could be secretary of State until six days ago -- there is a line of thinking in the political world that nothing the Clintons do is without calculation.

If you ascribe to that idea, then this push by her advisers to paint Clinton as equivocating on her desire for the position could well be part of a power struggle between her and Obama; a public show of force to make clear that just because the president-elect has asked her for something doesn't mean she is in any rush to accede.

Given all that Clinton has been through since she announced her bid for president in January 2007, it seems entirely plausible that she legitimately hasn't made up her mind about what she should do with the rest of her political life and will take the rest of the week to decide whether she wants to continue in elected office or walk down a different path.

Regardless of her reasoning, the political world waits as she ponders the possibilities.

By Chris Cillizza, The Washington Post, November 19, 2008

She has not indicated whether she will take the job if she does not become Obama's secretary of State, but expanding coverage has been one of her goals for years.

Reporting from Washington -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), considered a prominent contender to become secretary of State in the Obama administration, was offered an alternative Tuesday -- to be a senior member of the Senate team aiming to overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who has announced plans to craft sweeping healthcare legislation next year, asked the former presidential contender to head a working group focused on insurance coverage.

And lawmakers on Capitol Hill are lining up to try to lead what is expected to be a long but high-profile legislative campaign.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) last week unveiled his template for reshaping the healthcare system.

Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced Tuesday that he also had asked Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to head a working group on prevention and public health, and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) to head a working group on improving the quality of care.

Clinton had no immediate reaction to Kennedy's invitation.




By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2008

Hillary Clinton will face a financial decision if she is nominated as secretary of state: what to do about the more than $7 million in debts left over from her presidential campaign.

She could pay off the bulk of her debt by liquidating her Senate campaign committee account. She also could legally continue to raise money, though that may present ethical concerns if she is serving in the Cabinet.

Clinton, 61, appears to be the frontrunner for secretary of state, according to a Democrat familiar with the matter. If she accepts the post, which would require her to be vetted by the Obama transition team and confirmed by the Senate, she may be forced to address questions about the financial dealings of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and clear the fiscal books of her presidential campaign.

"If she wants to pay it off, she'll want to pay it off relatively soon,'' former Federal Election Commission General Counsel Larry Noble said.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for the New York senator, said that paying off campaign debts "is a priority for her, and she remains committed to that goal.''

Conflicts of Interest

Continued fundraising has the potential to create diplomatic conflicts of interest.

While foreign governments and nationals can't donate to U.S. political campaigns, U.S. subsidiaries of overseas companies and U.S. lobbyists for foreign governments can donate. Though President-elect Barack Obama doesn't take contributions from registered lobbyists and could ask others in his administration to do the same, that ban doesn't apply to members of lobbying firms who aren't registered to lobby.

It would be "very worrisome to have administration people not running for office receiving money from private special interests,'' said Craig Holman, a lobbyist with Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors stronger campaign- finance laws. "There is a big hole here and a large potential for a conflict of interest.''

Should Clinton be named secretary of state, her husband has agreed to strict oversight of his future charitable and business activities, and disclose his current donors, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing unnamed Democrats familiar with the discussions.

Consultants

Hillary Clinton owes $7.6 million to vendors, Reines said, down from $10.8 million on July 31. Her latest Federal Election Commission filings show that as of Sept. 30 she owed $5.3 million to former strategist Mark Penn and $250,000 for communications and consulting services to Gotham Acme, the name of former spokesman Howard Wolfson's music and political blog.

Clinton already has had to write off most of the $13.2 million she lent her campaign since federal election law prevents her from raising all but $250,000 to pay herself back after her party's nominating convention in late August.

Her Senate campaign committee, which had $6 million in the bank at the end of September, could agree to pay off her presidential campaign debts.

The Senate account received $6.5 million in donations from supporters who initially had given the money to finance Clinton's general-election campaign had she won the Democratic presidential nomination. They gave the money instead to her Senate campaign rather than request a refund.

Campaign Tally

Overall, Clinton took in $217 million for her presidential campaign, the third-highest amount for a Democratic candidate, behind John Kerry in 2004 and Obama this year.

Separately, Clinton's political-action committee, HillPAC, reported $692,773 in the bank as of Oct. 15.

Former Senator Bill Cohen, a Maine Republican, temporarily kept his campaign account after becoming secretary of defense under President Clinton. He stopped taking donations and spent the $21,161 he had in his account in 1997 and 1998.

Two Republican presidential candidates also opened their own checkbooks to help fund their White House runs. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney loaned his campaign $44.6 million and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani took out an $800,000 loan. Giuliani also reported debts of $217,522 to his own companies.

If Clinton's unpaid bills turn into an impediment to her obtaining the Cabinet position, one solution may be for Obama to resolve the issue by enlisting his vast fundraising network to pay off her debt.

By Jonathan D. Salant, Bloomberg, November 19, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged three prominent lawyers to help President-elect Barack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.

Attorneys Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Robert Barnett are working with the Obama transition team to review information about the Clintons' background and finances, including Bill Clinton's post-presidential business deals and relationships with foreign governments. All three represented the Clintons on legal matters in the White House, including President Clinton's dalliance with intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment in 1998.

Officials knowledgeable about the vetting said it has gone smoothly and that both Clintons were cooperating fully.

Bill Clinton already has appeared to take an important step toward smoothing his wife's path to the job.

Democrats familiar with the negotiations said the former president has suggested he would step away from day-to-day responsibility for his charitable foundation while his wife served and would alert the State Department to his speaking schedule and any new sources of income.

A top aide involved in the vetting said there was nothing obvious in the former president's dealings that would torpedo his wife's prospects for the job. The aide was not authorized to discuss the matter, and would speak only on background.

The aide pointed out that former President George H.W. Bush has given paid speeches and participated in international business ventures since his son, George W. Bush, has been president without stirring public complaints about a conflict of interest.

But another Democrat who advised Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign warned that Bill Clinton's business arrangements were more complicated than many people realized. During the campaign, few of her senior strategists knew anything about the former president's business deals and whether they would hold up under scrutiny if she won the nomination, this person said. The adviser spoke on background, not authorized to speak publicly for Hillary Clinton's political operation.

It was unclear whether Bill Clinton has agreed to submit financial information to the transition team that has not been made public through Hillary Clinton's Senate disclosure requirements or during her campaign, when the couple released several years of joint tax returns.

For example, still unknown are the names of donors to Bill Clinton's foundation and presidential library or what he earns as a partner with Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund, a private investment venture run by billionaire Ron Burkle, a close friend.

During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Obama pressed the former president to name the donors to his library. Bill Clinton refused, saying many had given money on the condition that their names not be revealed. He promised to make the donors' names public going forward if his wife won the Democratic nomination.

The former president has engaged in other deals that could complicate his wife's work with foreign governments as secretary of state. Records show he raised money for his foundation from the Saudi royal family, Kuwait, Brunei and the Embassy of Qatar, and from a Chinese Internet company seeking information on Tibetan human rights activists.

While many people familiar with the New York senator's thinking say she is inclined to take the secretary of state's job if it is offered, others say she is also considering the consequences of leaving the Senate, where she had hoped to take a leading role on health care reform and other issues.

"Would she be willing to give up her independent stature in the U.S. Senate, Robert F. Kennedy's seat, to be in the Cabinet? It will be a considerable decision for her," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton adviser not involved in the vetting. "It's a completely different life than you lead in the Senate, where you are your own spokesperson, your own advocate. When you join the Cabinet of the president of the United States, that is no longer the case."

Clinton declined to discuss any part of the selection process Tuesday. "I've said everything I have to say on Friday," she said.

At the State Department, the prospect of Clinton as secretary is creating some anxiety among career foreign service officers worried that she would install her own loyalists and exclude them from policy making. Some at the State Department see her as a foreign policy lightweight, although there is grudging acknowledgment of her star power.

Others closer to the Obama camp have criticized Clinton's credentials for the job.

Greg Craig, a law school classmate of both Clintons who led President Clinton's defense team during his impeachment, wrote a blistering memo during the primary campaign attacking Hillary Clinton's claim to have brokered foreign policy deals during her husband's presidency.

"There is no reason to believe ... that she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton administration," Craig, an early Obama supporter likely to be White House counsel, wrote in March.

"She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room," Craig added. "She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not."

By BETH FOUHY, The Associated Press, September 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has reservations about accepting an appointment as secretary of state in the Obama administration, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton who is familiar with her thinking said on Tuesday.

The adviser described Mrs. Clinton as flattered by President-elect Barack Obama's interest but said she was agonizing over the decision. Mrs. Clinton likes being her own boss and is reluctant to give up the independence that comes with that, said the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process was at a delicate stage.

"If you are secretary of state you work for the president," the adviser said in an e-mail response to questions from The New York Times. "If you are a senator, you work for yourself and the people that elected you."

It was unclear if Mrs. Clinton's stated hesitation was part of a bargaining tactic as the Obama team weighs whether to appoint her secretary of state, a genuine moment of indecision or, perhaps, a signal that she was preparing to withdraw from consideration.

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, declined to comment, referring questions to the Obama transition team.

The Clinton camp on Tuesday sought to rebut reports that former President Bill Clinton's finances and other interests could block Mrs. Clinton's path to an appointment.

Mr. Obama's aides this week have been reviewing Mr. Clinton's business dealings, focusing on the array of his post-presidential activities, some details of which have not been made public.

That includes the identity of most of the donors to his foundation, the source of some of his speaking fees - he has earned as much as $425,000 for a one-hour speech - and his work for the billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle.

"Issues around W.J.C. won't be the stumbling block," the adviser to Mrs. Clinton said in the e-mail message to The Times. "She hasn't decided whether she wants to leave the Senate."

The adviser added that lawyers conducting the vetting process for Mr. Obama and aides to Mrs. Clinton made progress on Tuesday in resolving some questions around Mr. Clinton's interests.

Mrs. Clinton's advisers do not believe that joining the Obama cabinet would preclude her from running for president again, if she sought to do so, though she has played down the possibility of another bid for the White House.

"In fact I could argue it would be better for that," the adviser said, noting that it would provide her "full immersion into the Obama wing" of the Democratic Party.

Mrs. Clinton was rebounding from her primary defeat at the hands of Mr. Obama and expressed eagerness to dive into some of the major domestic policy proposals Congress will grapple with in the coming term, especially health care.

But last Thursday, her onetime rival reached out to her and Mrs. Clinton traveled to Chicago, where they discussed the possibility of the secretary of state job.

"She thinks Obama has been great to ask, and she has been well-treated during the process," the adviser to Mrs. Clinton said. "But she's unsure."

One complication that Mrs. Clinton will face if she becomes secretary of state is the mountain of campaign debt leftover from her presidential run.

Mrs. Clinton has $7.6 million in outstanding bills from the campaign, Mr. Reines said, not including personal loans she made to her campaign.

The Hatch Act, which governs the political activities of federal employees, prohibits the solicitation and receipt of political contributions. Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the United States Office of Special Counsel, which enforces the Hatch Act, pointed to a 2001 advisory opinion issued by the agency.

The opinion stipulates that a federal employee seeking to retire campaign debt incurred before his or her federal employment would be barred from personally soliciting the donations, but the "campaign organization of a candidate who later becomes a federal employee may continue to organize and promote fund-raising events to retire campaign debt."

The advisory opinion goes on to say that the former candidate cannot "assist in promoting the event and may not otherwise actively participate in such events."

On the other hand, it says that the former candidate can attend the fund-raising events and "be recognized and briefly state his appreciation to all whose efforts contributed to the retirement of his campaign debt," but any participation beyond "this passive role" would violate the law.

There is also the obvious question of appearances. Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said that cabinet members were typically given wider latitude when it came to political activities, but pointed out that there was special sensitivity when it came to the State Department and the Pentagon.

By Raymond Hernandez and Michael Luo, The New York Times, November 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - Presidents typically say they want to be surrounded by strong-willed people who have the courage to disagree with them. President-elect Barack Obama, reaching out to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans, actually might mean it.

Abraham Lincoln meant it. He appointed his bitter adversaries to crucial posts, choosing as war secretary a man who had called him a "long-armed ape" who "does not know anything and can do you no good."

You could say his Cabinet meetings were frank and open.

Richard Nixon didn't mean it.

"I don't want a government of yes-men," he declared. But among all the president's men, those who said no did so at their peril. He went down a path of destruction in the company of sycophants.

It so happens that Obama and New York Sen. Clinton share a reverence for "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about how Lincoln brought foes into his fold. Clinton listed it during the campaign as the last book she had read. Obama, clearly a student of Lincoln, spoke of it several times.

Now past could be prologue.

Obama is considering Clinton for secretary of state or another senior position, meeting John McCain on Monday to see how his Republican presidential rival might help him in the Senate, and sizing up one-time opponents in both parties for potential recruitment. He made one Democratic presidential opponent, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, his running mate.

"I think it reflects a great inner strength on Obama's part that he is seriously considering creating a team of rivals as Lincoln did," Goodwin told The Associated Press on Friday.

"By surrounding himself with people who bring different perspectives, he will increase his options, absorb dissenting views and heighten his ability to speak empathetically to people on different sides of each issue. The challenge, of course, is to ensure that the discussions do not become paralyzing, and that once a decision is made the inner circle accepts that the time for debate is over," she said.

During the bitter primary campaign, Clinton dismissed Obama as a neophyte who could not be trusted to handle crises and who had not done much more in politics than make fancy speeches. Obama sniffed that "you're likable enough, Hillary."

Yet she strongly supported Obama in the general campaign, not unlike William Henry Seward, the Hillary Clinton of his day.

Seward, the front-runner in the race for the 1860 Republican nomination, was so confident of taking the prize that he went on an eight-month tour of Europe a year earlier, only to see Lincoln vanquish him. Lincoln buried animosities and made him secretary of state.

Lincoln also enlisted Democrat Edwin Stanton as his second war secretary, despite being humiliated by Stanton years earlier when they worked together as trial lawyers. Salmon P. Chase, a constant critic of Lincoln and another Republican rival, became his treasury secretary. Other rivals were put in the Cabinet, too.

Lincoln's reasoning: "We needed the strongest men. These were the very strongest men. I had no right to deprive the country of their services."

None of this has been lost on Obama, who said in May that Lincoln's inclusion of former foes "has to be the approach that one takes."

At the time, he said he would consider McCain for the Cabinet if that made sense. Now, aides for both men say such a move is not in the works but they will seek other ways to cooperate.

To be sure, the pledge to build a strong and politically diverse Cabinet of people who will not be cowed by the president and his aides is made in one election after another. It usually has all the staying power of a New Year's resolution.

Michael Nelson, in his "Guide to the Presidency," noted that Jimmy Carter promised: "There will never be an instance while I am in office where the members of the White House staff dominate or act in a superior position to the members of the Cabinet."

That didn't last long. Carter met weekly with his Cabinet in his first year, every two weeks in his second, monthly in his third and only sporadically in his fourth, Nelson calculated, tracing a typical pattern of good intentions lost in the wind.

Walter Hickel, Nixon's interior secretary, thought the president valued his contrary views "because, to me, an adversary in an organization is a valuable asset." Not to Nixon.

Hickel came to realize Nixon "considered an adversary an enemy." The two particularly disagreed over the Alaskan pipeline - the secretary wanted to protect wilderness lands coveted by the oil companies.

During one testy meeting, he asked Nixon whether he should leave his administration. "He jumped from his chair, very hurried and agitated," Hickel recalled. "He said, 'That's one option we hadn't considered.'" A week later, Hickel was fired.

Goodwin says a true team of rivals is exceptionally difficult to make work in these days of hyperpartisanship, scandal-hungry blogs and raw feelings between parties and factions of the same party from the often nasty campaign. Disharmony in Lincoln's Cabinet was largely kept inside the meetings, exposed years later in memoirs, and that's not how the world works anymore.

Still, she said the even-keeled Obama displayed a temperament in the campaign that could help him pull it off.

"And I believe the country would respond with great enthusiasm, recognizing the great contrast to recent times."

Obama invited dissent in his election night victory speech, promising, "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree."

It remains to be seen whether he wants naysaying of the kind delivered by Stanton, who served as Democrat James Buchanan's attorney general in one of the few instances in history when a Cabinet member from one party has gone on to serve a president of the other party in the succeeding administration.

"You are sleeping on a volcano," he warned Buchanan in the lead-up to the Civil War. Without prompt action, "you will be the last president of the United States."

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer, November 16, 2008

Word that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was a contender to become President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state set off frenzied speculation in New York political circles on Friday about who could replace her.

The buzz centered on the obvious (Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo), the unfamiliar (Representative Brian Higgins of Buffalo) and the improbable (Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg).

There were also candidates who appealed because of their political lineage, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his cousin Caroline Kennedy. And there were those who seemed to be the safe, practical choices, like Representatives Nita M. Lowey, Gregory W. Meeks or Steve Israel.

Under New York election law, if the Senate seat becomes vacant, Gov. David A. Paterson will appoint someone. But, assuming the person is appointed in 2008, that person must stand for election in 2009.

Two people with knowledge of Mr. Paterson's thinking on the matter, who were granted anonymity so they could speak openly about internal discussions, said that the governor's top advisers were aware that Mr. Obama was considering Mrs. Clinton for several days before it was reported by NBC News on Thursday evening. The governor believes there is a real possibility that he may have to make an appointment, these people said.

Independent political strategists and leading Democrats theorized that Mr. Paterson's choice would come down to three factors: geography, diversity and whether the replacement senator could help Mr. Paterson politically.

As for geographical considerations, it is a sore subject among many New Yorkers who live north of Westchester County that all three leadership positions in Albany - governor, speaker of the State Assembly and majority leader of the State Senate - are held by officials from downstate.

"He has got to unite the state," said Henry A. Sheinkopf, a Manhattan political consultant. "If he's perceived as being a downstate-only guy, he loses the moral authority that's keeping his numbers up."

Enter Mr. Higgins, a second term congressman whose district stretches from Buffalo to the Pennsylvania border. Democrats said they viewed Mr. Higgins as a contender who could help shore up the area for Mr. Paterson, who will be on the ticket in 2010.

Mr. Cuomo's appeal also extends to upstate voters because of his father's tenure in Albany and his own race for attorney general in 2006. It is also not lost on Mr. Paterson's advisers that appointing Mr. Cuomo to the Senate would eliminate him as a possible contender for governor.

But Mr. Paterson could seek to appoint a woman, or more likely, a Latino.

"We're in an era of political groundbreaking, and we don't have any Hispanic elected officials," said George Artz, a prominent media consultant. Although the state's population is 16 percent Latino, none of its statewide elected officials are.

Other Democrats mentioned include Representative Nydia M. Velaquez, whose district spans parts of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, and who is the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Paterson insisted on Friday that he had not given the issue much thought. "I don't know anything," the governor said playfully as he was leaving an award ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey has been floated as a possible choice for Treasury secretary by political analysts and reporters, but members of the governor's inner circle say he has received no indication from the Obama transition team that he is under consideration.

By Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, November 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - The end of the presidential campaign seemed to signal the completion of the Obama-Clinton drama. But now it turns out there could be a surprise ending.

Advisers to the onetime rivals for the Democratic nomination confirmed Friday that President-elect Barack Obama had met with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday afternoon at Mr. Obama's transition office in Chicago and discussed the secretary of state job.

The prospect of Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state, perhaps the most prestigious cabinet position in any administration, sent people buzzing. But associates to both Democrats cautioned that their conversation included other cabinet possibilities and that no job was offered. Democrats said late Friday that Mr. Obama had also met with another oft-mentioned candidate for the post, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, to discuss the secretary of state job.

Still, the fact that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton had even met to discuss such a possibility left even some of their closest advisers and allies talking about the pros and cons of so close a partnership, and about how it would be complicated by a third wheel: Mrs. Clinton's globe-trotting husband, former President Bill Clinton.

The possibility of Mrs. Clinton's joining Mr. Obama in such a role has been bandied about in Washington for several months, usually with the caveat that it was somewhere between unlikely and far-fetched. But on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton was spied boarding a plane to Chicago and by early evening a small motorcade of black sport utility vehicles emerged from the garage of the downtown Chicago building where Mr. Obama has his transition office, just minutes before Mr. Obama's own motorcade left it. Mrs. Clinton, as a former first lady, has Secret Service protection and travels in a government S.U.V. By Friday morning, amid escalating speculation that she was a serious candidate for secretary of state, associates of both of them confirmed they had met.

Both Obama and Clinton advisers say that the relationship between the two is much more complex than one simply inspired by a keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer philosophy. While Mr. Obama never seriously considered Mrs. Clinton as his running mate, one of his aides described him as "self-confident enough to want to send a message to the world about America and all that it can be - and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state would do that."

The aide said that in the last few months of the campaign Mr. Obama came to appreciate the effort she made to rally her supporters on his behalf.

Should he pick her, Mr. Obama may further unite and energize his party, make clear to the world that he is serious about diplomacy, and send a substantive political signal to women.

That said, there are clear dangers for Mr. Obama as well, not least of them any lingering rivalry between the two of them after an often-contentious primary campaign. The drama-averse president-elect would also inevitably be sharing the stage with both Clintons, with all of the attention and baggage that accompany them wherever they go. And her appointment could undercut his argument that he is bringing true change to Washington.

It is not clear what room Mrs. Clinton's presence as the nation's top diplomat would leave for Vice President-elect Jpseph R. Biden Jr. to be an influential player in his specialty of foreign policy. And now that his consideration of Mrs. Clinton has become so public, he faces another danger: the risk of reopening old wounds in the party and among Democratic women in particular if he does not appoint her to a top job.

For Mrs. Clinton, there are pros and cons to taking the job as well. Senior Senate Democratic officials say it has become increasingly clear to Mrs. Clinton and her advisers that there was no quick route to a position of influence in the Senate, potentially increasing her interest in a prominent role in the Obama administration.

She had approached the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, about becoming chairwoman of a special subcommittee to handle health care issues, but he squelched the idea, Senate officials said. Aides to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, made it clear that despite his illness, he intended to consider health overhaul before the full committee that he leads.

Mrs. Clinton was also discouraged from trying to mount a challenge to any junior members of the party's Senate leadership, one official said. In a seniority-driven institution like the Senate, it could take years for Mrs. Clinton to accumulate real power despite her status as a national political celebrity and the appeal she demonstrated in the primary season.

One potential downside for Mrs. Clinton taking a top job in the cabinet: she would presumably have to disclose much more about Mr. Clinton's earnings, especially from foreign sources, and donors to his presidential library than they have been willing to disclose so far.

In Albany on Friday, Mrs. Clinton said she would not address reports about whether she would be offered a position in the Obama administration. "I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president elect's incoming administration," she said.

In their primary battle, the Obama and Clinton campaigns had almost a blood duel over foreign policy credentials, as in the famous 3 a.m. phone call Clinton advertisement.

Mrs. Clinton's charge that Mr. Obama was not ready to be commander in chief had left many Obama aides angry and bitter. Greg Craig, one of Mr. Obama's top foreign policy aides, detailed in a memorandum in March what the campaign called evidence of Mrs. Clinton's lack of foreign policy experience. Another Obama adviser, Susan Rice, said in a conference call during that period that the ability to handle a 3 a.m. crisis phone call was not something that could be acquired "merely by being married to a commander in chief."

But as Mrs. Clinton dutifully showed up at campaign rallies this fall for Mr. Obama, it prompted speculation that she could be secretary of state. By Friday, when it erupted into full, officials from both sides of the aisle were abuzz with talk of what an Obama White House flanked by a Clinton State Department would look like. John Bolton, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations, who forecasted as early as this past July that Mrs. Clinton could wind up at the State Department, laughed as he offered the incoming president this piece of advice: "Obama should remember the rule that you never hire anybody you can't fire, especially as secretary of state."

By Jackie Calmes and Helene Cooper, The New York Times, November 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton's globe-trotting business deals and fundraising for his foundation sometimes put his activities abroad at odds with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and could cause complications if President-elect Barack Obama picks her to be secretary of state.

During her own White House campaign, the New York senator criticized China for its crackdown on protesters in Tibet and urged President George W. Bush to skip the Olympics in Beijing. Her campaign was embarrassed by reports that her husband's foundation had raised money from a Chinese Internet company that posted an online government "Most Wanted" notice seeking information on Tibetan human-rights activists that may have been involved in the demonstrations.

Hillary Clinton has campaigned as a champion of workers' rights. This year, Brazilian labor inspectors found what they called "degrading" living conditions for sugar cane workers employed by an ethanol company in which Bill Clinton invested.

In the Senate, Clinton was an outspoken critic of a proposed deal under which a Dubai company planned to buy a British business that helped run six major U.S. ports. The company, DP World, privately sought Bill Clinton's advice about how to respond to the controversy over the port plan, which later was abandoned.

Obama met with Hillary Clinton on Thursday at his headquarters in Chicago, and some Democrats were enthusiastic amid speculation the pair discussed the job of secretary of state. She declined Friday to say anything about the matter, and Obama is understood to be considering other candidates as his top diplomat, including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Bill Clinton's fundraising for his presidential library and charitable activities also could pose additional headaches for his wife if he selects her for the job.

Since leaving the White House in early 2001, Bill Clinton has raised at least $353 million for the William J. Clinton Foundation, which finances his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., as well as his global anti-AIDS initiative and other charitable efforts.

The former president has raised money overseas beyond the Chinese Internet company's contributions: from the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a foundation linked to the United Arab Emirates and the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, The New York Times reported last year.

His foundation reaped millions of dollars from Canadian mining tycoon Frank Giustra, and Clinton accompanied Giustra on a 2005 trip to Kazakhstan, whose human-rights record Hillary Clinton had criticized, the newspaper reported. The pair met with Kazakhstan's president, and within days Giustra's company landed preliminary agreements giving it rights to buy into uranium projects controlled by a Kazakhstan state-owned enterprise. Clinton said he had nothing to do with the deal.

Louis Freeh, the FBI director under the former president, said Clinton sought a library donation from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah during a discussion of the investigation into the deadly 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers U.S. military dormitory in Saudi Arabia.

Freeh wrote in his book "My FBI" that the FBI was trying to get Abdullah to let the FBI question suspects the Saudi kingdom had in custody and that Clinton failed to pressure Abdullah.

Clinton denied Freeh's account, and has said his business dealings and foundation fundraising pose no political conflicts for his wife. The former president has so far refused to identify donors to his foundation.

Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the former president, declined to comment on any potential difficulties that Clinton's activities could pose for his wife should she become secretary of state or whether the former president would alter any of his fundraising or other activities to avoid potential conflicts.

The Clintons have taken in more than $100 million since leaving the White House, thanks in large part to six-figure speaking fees charged by the former president and to his book royalties and partnership with Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund, a Los Angeles-based investment firm founded by a longtime Clinton fundraiser.

Bill Clinton has cultivated the image of a senior statesman since leaving the White House and often makes speeches abroad. That role could be diminished if his wife were representing the Obama administration on international issues.

In a 6,400-word speech in London in March 2006, the former president laid out his views on a variety of world issues, including the Middle East peace process. Buried in the lengthy address were a few lines that could make a White House press office rush for damage control.

"The Palestinians are younger and poorer today than they were when we started the peace process in 1993," he said. "And I have never met a single poor Palestinian anywhere in the world except in the Palestinian territories. Every single Palestinian I know in America is a millionaire or a college professor, and I say that with deep respect, but when there is a conflict, when there is an absence of security, there is always an absence of opportunity."

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press, November 15, 2008