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Obama turns to friends, foes for top posts
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 08:30 For secretary of state, both went with big names that campaigned against them in their primary race, with Obama choosing Clinton and Bush going with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell. At HHS, both chose deeply experienced elected officials -- Obama picking Daschle and Bush choosing Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.
They also chose experienced Defense secretaries who had already served in the position -- Gates for Obama and Donald Rumsfeld for Bush. And both put well-respected governors as their first picks as Homeland Security secretary -- a position Bush created -- with Obama picking Napolitano and Bush picking Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. In some cases, Obama is choosing even more experienced hands. Jones and Richardson have more government experience than Bush's first national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and his Commerce secretary, Donald Evans. Clinton's nomination is the latest chapter in what began as a bitter rivalry for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Obama defeated her, Clinton backed his general election campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain, and she now has agreed to give up her Senate seat to be his top diplomat. To make it possible for his wife to become secretary of state, party officials said, former President Bill Clinton agreed to: * Disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997 and all contributors going forward. * Refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference. * Cease holding CGI meetings overseas. * Volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state. * Submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel. * Submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review. "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. 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 who has such cosmic ties, but ... hopefully, this team of rivals will work," Lugar said. |
