Clinton Top Contender for Secretary of State
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/14/clinton_top_contender_for_secr.html?hpid=topnews
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
Clinton Top Contender for Secretary of State
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in Orlando in late October. (Jim Young/Reuters)
Updated 1:30 p.m.
By Anne E. Kornblut
After an under-wraps meeting with President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago on Thursday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is now considered a top contender for the role of Secretary of State in the Obama administration, several people involved in the process said on Friday.
Clinton, in an appearance televised live on Friday, said she would not speculate about Obama’s Cabinet selections. Her aides have referred questions about the process to the Obama transition team, whose officials are not commenting. Advisors warn that only a small handful of officials know for certain where Clinton ranks on Obama’s short list, which also includes Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.
But one Clinton veteran who is in touch with the transition team called it a “real possibility.” Another said she has a “very good chance” of getting the job. Most notably, Obama advisors have done nothing to tamp down speculation about Clinton, as they did when it became clear she would not be Obama’s running mate — even though letting her name hang in the air holds real risks for Obama if he ultimately does not select her, potentially reopening the Democratic primary’s wounds.
The mere mention of Clinton’s name has set off a frenzy of speculation about the advantages — and disadvantages — of selecting his former Democratic rival and former first lady, whom Obama passed over as his vice presidential running mate.
In an interview on Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close confidante of Sen. John McCain’s, said Clinton would be an excellent choice and easily confirmed by the Senate for the post. “I thought she was going to come back to the Senate. Who knows?” Graham said.
“She’ll easily be confirmed if she gets chosen,” Graham said. “That kinda surprised me, but she wouldn’t be a bad choice at all. If she were chosen, she has the portfolio and the skills that would make her uniquely qualified for the job.”
A central question is how Clinton would fare in the vetting process. Another is how well her operation, and her husband’s, would blend into an Obama operation that has been famous for its discipline and collegiality. Although Clinton campaigned hard for Obama in the fall, tensions between the two camps remain.
A third political consideration for Obama is how to handle Kerry, who set Obama’s political career in motion by having him give the keynote address at the Democratic convention in 2004. Kerry is a senior member of th Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Clinton is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
When Obama did not pick Clinton over the summer, her advisors complained that he did not even extend her the courtesy of vetting her. But aides to both also said that, during a private meeting after the primaries ended, Clinton had explicitly asked Obama not to vet her — a process that would involve turning over tax returns and opening up her husband’s library and foundation records — unless he intended to choose her.
At the time, Obama aides said they did not believe Clinton could have survived their rigorous vetting process, in particular because of former president Bill Clinton’s work since leaving office. The question, then, is whether the standards for Secretary of State are lower than for vice president, and whether Clinton is now comfortable turning over her family’s private information.
To be considered for the post, Clinton, like other contenders for high-ranking executive positions, would have to undergo an onerous and far-reaching process that would force her and her husband to disclose detailed personal and financial records.
The Obama transition team is requiring that all candidates for Cabinet and other senior positions complete a 63-question application, in addition to an extensive FBI background check before their Senate confirmation hearings, according to an Obama advisor involved in vetting candidates who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the personnel process.
The Obama team requires candidates and their spouses to detail their finances and all corporations, partnerships, trusts, business entities, as well as political, civic, social, charitable, educational, professional, fraternal, benevolent or religious organizations they have been involved with during the past 10 years.
It is unclear whether former president Bill Clinton would be forced to disclose the benefactors of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, information that has not previously been made public.
The Obama questionnaire includes a request to identify any personal financial records that the candidate or spouse “will not release publicly if necessary,” and to “state the reasons for withholding them.”
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Among the other requests demanded of candidates by the Obama team is any e-mail, text message, instant message or diary entry that could “suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family or the president-elect if it were made public.”