It's Official: Hillary Clinton Will Be Secretary of State

Posted by Staff, Huffington Post at 8:58 AM on November 30, 2008.

It's official. Obama will name Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State on Monday:

President-elect Barack Obama planned to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state on Monday, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.

Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said Saturday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team...

...The Clinton pick 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.

Senator Clinton's path to the Cabinet was cleared after her husband Bill agreed to disclose the names of all the donors to his foundation and library as well as agreeing to further conditions:

Most remarkably, the former president agreed to release the long-secret list of 208,000 donors to his presidential library and foundation. As one of nine concessions, he has promised to put out the list by the end of the year.

"It speaks to President Clinton's willingness to do more than what's asked of him," said a Democratic official familiar with the protracted negotiations between Clinton emissaries and Obama transition aides...

...Here's the full text of the internal guidance about the agreement:

"At the request of President-elect Obama, and to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest between the work of President Clinton and the service of Hillary Clinton should she be nominated and confirmed as Secretary of State, President Clinton is taking the following steps above and beyond the requirements of current laws and regulations.

--The Clinton Foundation will publish the names of everyone who has contributed since its founding in 1997 (this year).

--Should Senator Clinton be nominated and confirmed as Secretary of State, during her time of service, the Foundation will also publish the names of everyone who contributes going forward on an annual basis.

--The Foundation will separately incorporate CGI [the Clinton Global Initiative] from the Foundation; President Clinton will continue to host CGI gatherings, such as the one in NYC and its meetings for college and university students, as Founding Chairman of CGI.

--Although President Clinton will continue to invite participants to CGI events (which involves normal registration fees), he will not solicit 'sponsorship' contributions for CGI.

--CGI will also not host annual events outside the US and CGI will not solicit or accept foreign government contributions.

Read the full list of conditions here.

Tagged as: obama, secretary of state, hillary clinton, bill clinton