The Note: Politics of Nope

Nov. 18, 2008— -- About that hope thing -- can it wait 'til January?

For all the excitement and expectations surrounding the elevation of President-elect Barack Obama, it's a particularly grim week in Washington.

Lawmakers are reassembling for the lamest of lame-duck session, doubtful that they'll get anything done. Automakers and top administration officials trudge up to Capitol Hill Tuesday for their ritualized grillings -- but no one is quite sure what to do next.

Republicans are looking for a new direction -- if not an entirely new reason to exist. It's revenge time Tuesday, too, with Sen. Joe Lieberman's chairmanships and Sen. Ted Stevens' whole job potentially on the line. On the House side, an upstart of a 69-year-old is trying to oust the longest-serving member of the House from his chairmanship.

The politicking and stalled policy amounts to a big reality check for a nation that voted for change two weeks ago. Yes, we can talk about working together (and if Obama and Sen. John McCain can sit together and smile for the cameras, what can't happen?), but when it comes to governance, the same stubborn splits persist -- between the parties, inside the parties, and everywhere in between.

(If you need a smile yourself, Sen. Ted Kennedy is back.)

Obama's transition, meanwhile, is snagged on a very big question involving -- who else? -- the Big Dog himself.

"Mr. Clinton's postpresidential life as a globe-trotting philanthropist, business consultant and speech-giver poses the highest hurdle for Mrs. Clinton to overcome if President-elect Barack Obama chooses to nominate her as secretary of state, according to aides of the Clintons and Mr. Obama," The New York Times' Don Van Natta Jr. and Jo Becker report.

"While aides to the president-elect declined Monday to discuss what sort of requirements would make it possible for Mrs. Clinton to serve as secretary of state, they said Mr. Obama would not formally offer her the job unless he was satisfied that there would be no conflicts posed by Mr. Clinton's activities abroad."

Said Abner J. Mikva, an Obama supporter and a White House counsel during the Clinton administration: "There would have to be full disclosure as to who all were contributors to his library and foundation. I think they'd have to be made public."

(Maybe not everything, Obama aides advise -- but it's all under review.)

Could things be moving along? "Serious progress is being made," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Tuesday. "Sources say that both President-elect Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are increasingly optimistic that it will happen, perhaps -- perhaps -- even as early as the next week. . . . There has been an agreement now between the Clinton team and the Obama team in terms of vetting some of those financial documents."

Still: "The issue is both simple and complex: How to make sure that Bill Clinton's international fundraising -- from heads of state and others -- would not conflict with his wife's very public duties as the nation's top diplomat," The New York Daily News' David Saltonstall writes.

"With financial and political interests across the globe, former President Bill Clinton's ties raise a unique set of questions about the potential overlaps and conflicts of interest should his wife be nominated as secretary of state," ABC's Emma Schwartz and Avni Patel report. "Though the Obama team is working to vet Bill Clinton's interests, it may be nearly impossible to fully insulate Hillary from her husband's broad international reach."

There may be no other obstacle: "Officials did not describe Obama as having formally offered Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton the top diplomatic job during their private meeting at his Chicago transition office last week," per The Washington Post's Anne E. Kornblut, "but they said there is an understanding that if she can sort out some of the complications that accompany her husband's global work -- which has made him an international philanthropic powerhouse but also earned him millions in speaking fees from foreign companies, creating a potential conflict of interest -- she would have a strong, if not certain, shot at it."

Says James Carville: "There's a lot of momentum in the direction of this happening." But: "She's not married to Todd Palin."

Not everyone will be happy: "It's not playing quite as well . . . in some precincts of Obamaland. From his supporters on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, to campaign aides of the soon-to-be commander-in-chief, there's a sense of ambivalence about giving a top political plum to a woman they spent 18 months hammering as the compromised standard-bearer of an era that deserves to be forgotten," Politico's Ben Smith writes. "An overlooked theme in Obama's primary victory was his belief that the Clinton legacy was not, as the Clintons imagined, a pure political positive."

Smith continues: "One person who apparently has shown no ambivalence: Obama. 'It's not like he hedged his bets in conversation with her,' said a person involved in the process. While both sides say the situation remains fluid, this person said Obama was quite direct: 'He offered her the job.' "

How about policy? "If President-elect Barack Obama taps Senator Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, he would be giving her oversight of an area where the two former rivals diverged sharply during their prolonged primary battle: foreign policy," Scott Helman writes in The Boston Globe. "It is the one arena in which Obama and Clinton articulated significantly different visions. On a host of other issues - taxes, healthcare, jobs, free trade, investments in renewable energy - their positions were often indistinguishable."

At least two prominent Democrats would be particularly disappointed: "His choice for secretary of state is a high-stakes game with the potential to disappoint or anger powerful Democrats," Christina Bellantoni reports in the Washington Times. "Sen. John Kerry ushered the political upstart onto the national stage and early on became an Obama confidant. . . . New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took a gamble and endorsed Mr. Obama despite drawing wrath from Democratic insiders who felt he was being disloyal to Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton because he served in the Clinton Cabinet."

Another name in the mix: "Former Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke negotiated an end to a Balkan war, helped normalize relations with China and advanced American interests as envoy to the United Nations. But now he faces a diplomatic test like none before: persuading President-elect Barack Obama and his team to give him the prized job of secretary of State," The Los Angeles Times' Paul Richter reports.