Hillary’s Secretary Of State Odyssey

The vetting of Hillary Rodham Clinton for Secretary of State is proving somewhat painful for the former First Family, as President-elect Barack Obama’s team is now exploring potential conflicts of interest involving her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and whether or not those might preclude her from serving in the most influential position in the U.S. Cabinet.

President Clinton has refused to release a list of donors to his charitable activities or his presidential library – neither of which he is required to do, but both things that Obama’s people have requested.

This has raised some red flags, as Bill’s global “philanthropy” is widely-known to be funded by all sorts of folks who would have an interest in accessing the architect(s) of U.S. diplomatic policy – people like the Saudi Royal Family, the governments of Morocco, Kuwait, Qutar, the dictator of Kazakhstan and many other global players who conduct business with America.

Clearly the Clintons are a package deal – you get one, you get them both.

And clearly, there’s no love lost between Obama and the former President, who made critical remarks about Obama throughout the campaign and offered what some observers felt was a less-than-enthusiastic case for his election over Republican John McCain.

We suspect that Clinton will be named to the post eventually (sooner rather than later) and that Obama’s people are using this whole episode with the former President’s finances and business interests to remind the former first couple (particularly him) that there’s a new Sheriff in town, and that “disloyalty” won’t be tolerated moving forward.

Of course if Obama was interested in picking a Secretary of State that would exclusively advance his interests, “Billary” is not the way to go.

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