state dept.

And we’re underway. Hillary Clinton is gladhandling in the Hart Senate Office Buiding. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) — who wanted to be where Clinton is this morning –  is classy in his introduction. “We have an individual with the global stature and influence to help shape events,” Kerry says. “Her presence overseas will send a [...]

Since the last bit of my Hillary Rodham Clinton-confirmation-preview piece focused on the secretary of state-designee’s hard-line views on private military companies, I reached out to Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association — known around town as the genial mercenary lobbyist — for his reaction. Alas, Brooks was traveling to the Middle [...]

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:

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

It wasn’t long ago that the State Dept. was basically internet-illiterate. Now Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Colleen Graffy is oversharing on Twitter.

Just as we were asking about where Richard Holbrooke’s going to end up — and thinking about sending him to Iraq — after Greg Sargent’s Obama source dissed the Bulldozer, here comes the Washington Post:

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 [...]