Obama prepared to nominate Clinton today
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By Tom Brune Newsday - Published: December 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Chicago Monday for an announcement by President-elect Barack Obama that she will be nominated as secretary of state, a person close to Clinton confirmed to Newsday on Sunday.
The widely expected appointment came only after reports that lawyers for the Obama transition team and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, agreed on a nine-point deal that would result in disclosure of donors to his presidential library and charities.
Obama, in his first formal unveiling of his foreign affairs and national security team, is also expected to announce that he will retain Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the next year and will appoint retired Marine General James Jones as national security adviser, according to Democratic sources cited by the Associated Press.
Bill Clinton's far flung business, social and charitable dealings around the world appeared to be the biggest hurdle for his wife's appointment as the top U.S. diplomat in the new Obama administration.
Lawyers for the former president worked with Obama transition team attorneys to hammer out a deal to remove potential conflicts of interest and inadvertent clashes with State Department policy.
To clear the way for his wife, the AP reported, Bill Clinton agreed to:
"It's a big step," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.
The former president long had refused to disclose the identities of contributors to his foundation, saying many gave money on condition that they not be identified.
Lugar said there would still be "legitimate questions" raised about the former president's extensive international involvement.
"I don't know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this ... hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said.
Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton was an extraordinary gesture of goodwill after a year in which the two rivals competed for the Democratic nomination in a long, bitter primary battle.
They clashed repeatedly on foreign affairs. Obama criticized Clinton for her vote to authorize the Iraq war. Clinton said Obama lacked the experience to be president and she chided him for saying he would meet with leaders of nations such as Iran and Cuba without conditions.
The bitterness began melting away in June after Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. She went on to campaign for him in his general election contest against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Advisers said Obama had for several months envisioned Clinton as his top diplomat, and he invited her to Chicago to discuss the job just a week after the Nov. 4 election. The two met privately Nov. 13 in Obama's transition office in downtown Chicago.
Clinton was said to be interested and then to waver, concerned about relinquishing her Senate seat and the political independence it conferred. Those concerns were largely resolved after Obama assured her she would be able to choose a staff and have direct access to him, advisers said.
Remaining in the Senate also may not have been an attractive choice for Clinton. Despite her political celebrity, she is a relatively junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.
Some Democrats and government insiders have questioned whether Clinton is too independent and politically ambitious to serve Obama as secretary of state. But a senior Obama adviser has said the president-elect had been enthusiastic about naming Clinton to the position from the start, believing she would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations and the advantages to her serving far outweigh potential downsides.
Clinton "is known throughout the world, very smart, a little harder line than Senator Obama took during the campaign," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close McCain friend and adviser who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said the Clintons will have to tread carefully to avoid the appearance of conflicts.
"The presumption will be that both Secretary of State Clinton and former President Clinton will be very judicious in what they take on because there's a new dimension here," Reed said. "I think they've put up a good framework. This disclosure, this transparency is the right way to go."
Lugar and Reed both spoke on ABC's "This Week." Graham was on "Fox News Sunday."
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