Clinton

The stock market continued its cliff diving today, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor’s 500 Index closing at their lowest levels in more than a decade — cementing worries about the deepening recession.
As Calculated Risk puts it, it’s time to party like it’s 1997.

Remember about a month ago, when President-elect Barack Obama announced his foreign policy team, and it looked as if there was going to be a shift of emphasis from the military to the civilian agencies of government, in terms of money, attention and influence? Secretary of State-designee Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking to reorganize her [...]

So reports my friend Eli Lake in his debut as the Washington Times’ national-security correspondent:

Over at TPMmuckraker, Justin Elliott remembers that during the Democratic primary, Secretary of State-designee Hillary Rodham Clinton was an enthusiastic advocate of banning private military contractors from “combat-oriented and security functions in Iraq.” The State Dept. that President-elect Barack Obama tapped her to take over has, over the past five years, signed lucrative deals with [...]

Greg Sargent reports it’s official-official now: Jim Steinberg, deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, will be Hillary Rodham Clinton’s deputy secretary at the State Department.

For those progressives worried about getting jobs in Hillary Clinton’s State Dept., this AP story must come as very welcome news:

Americans overwhelmingly approve of President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet appointments, but that hasn’t resulted in increased confidence in Obama’s ability to lead the country.
According to a CNN poll released Wednesday, 75 percent of Americans support Obama’s cabinet nominations, including 71 percent who back his choice of Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and 83 percent who [...]

Speaking of Hillary Clinton’s people, Greg Sargent has it confirmed from a knowledgeable source: Jim Steinberg, deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton’s second term, is close to becoming Hillary Rodham Clinton’s deputy secretary of state.
While being mindful of President-elect Obama’s admonition yesterday against the Obama-versus-Clinton meme, Steinberg almost assuredly isn’t whom Clinton would have [...]

Not long ago, a number of foreign-policy progressives in the Obama orbit vented to me about how they were concerned Hillary Rodham Clinton would shut them out of State Dept. jobs in favor of her own people. It wasn’t really an idle concern: several remember how the Clinton people un-sutbly warned Democrats during the primaries [...]

Things are looking good for Eric Holder, Obama’s pick for attorney general, formally announced today.
In addition to the highly flattering portrait of Holder as a young man in today’s New York Times, he’s getting praise from some of the most serious critics of the Attorney Generals under George W. Bush.
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), for [...]