The Note: Of Clintons and Clintonistas

Nov. 19, 2008— -- Which of these items should surprise us:

- The fact that Vice-president-elect Joe Biden is still a member of the United States Senate? (Albeit one with no intentions of actually casting another vote.)

- The fact that Sen. Ted Stevens is still a member of the Republican caucus? (Albeit one with very few votes left to cast.)

- The fact that Sen. Joe Lieberman is still a member of the Democratic caucus? (Just with one fewer subcommittee chairmanship that no one knew he had.)

- The fact that it there might be more old Clinton hands in the incoming Obama administration that there would have been if Hillary Clinton had won?

- The fact that conventional wisdom on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at State has shifted from why-would-he-want-her to why-would-she-want-it? (Is this all part of a power-play dance?)

- The fact that President-elect Barack Obama hasn't had complete, leak-proof control of any of his major appointments so far in the transition process? (All this before he names a single member of his Cabinet . . . )

Forgiveness is in the air on the Hill, and maybe in Chicago, too.

Add Eric Holder, Obama's choice for attorney general, to two running lists: worst-kept appointment secrets, and former top Clinton administration officials filling out the Obama team.

If Holder gets the nod, this means we know there will be at least one (if not a dozen) confirmation fights that reopen the old battles of the Clinton years.

This while Sen. Clinton plays out her internal fight over whether she wants to be Secretary of State. (Sorry, did someone mention drama?)

"While Mr. Obama has yet to name any of his cabinet secretaries, his early choices for White House staff positions and the names currently at the top of the list for staff and cabinet jobs suggest that his administration could be heavily stocked with Democrats who served under Mr. Clinton," The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau and John M. Broder report.

This storyline, again: "President-elect Barack Obama repeatedly is turning to the Clinton administration for his Cabinet and staff, the latest example coming yesterday when Eric Holder emerged as the leading candidate for attorney general," Bloomberg's James Rowley and Julianna Goldman write. "To be sure, some of the problems that beset the Clinton administration could follow as well."

Obama "wants the best people for the job, and he's willing to overcome that chatter if he determines that anyone he appoints is the best person for the job, even if they did serve in the Clinton administration," ABC's George Stephanopoulos said on "Good Morning America" Wednesday.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff broke the Holder news: "Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, still has to undergo a formal 'vetting' review by the Obama transition team before the selection is final and is publicly announced, said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified talking about the transition process. But in the discussions over the past few days, Obama offered Holder the job and he accepted, the source said. The announcement is not likely until after Obama announces his choices to lead the Treasury and State departments."

What does it mean for an offer to have been made, but for it not to be finalized?

"Holder, 57, was offered the job late last week and tentatively accepted it, sources said," Carrie Johnson reports in The Washington Post. "The Obama team intends to make the nomination official if he receives at least moderate support from Republican lawmakers and completes the vetting process, the sources said. Intermediaries began to reach out to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and the vetting pace accelerated yesterday."

"Michael J. Madigan, a Republican lawyer who has served in several high-profile positions on Capitol Hill but who supported Obama's bid for the presidency, said that 'the whole Marc Rich thing is a bad rap and it won't go anywhere' if GOP senators press it at confirmation hearings," Johnson writes.

The contours of the battle are taking shape even before the nomination is made formal: "The biggest issue in any confirmation hearing, Holder's supporters and critics said, would be that as deputy attorney general he had failed to oppose a presidential pardon for then-fugitive financier Marc Rich on the last day of the Clinton administration. Rich's former wife, Denise, was a contributor to former President Clinton's presidential library," Josh Meyer writes in the Los Angeles Times.
"Holder faced criticism for not speaking up before Clinton's pardon of financier Marc Rich, who fled the United States after his indictment for tax evasion and tax fraud," per ABC's Jake Tapper, Pierre Thomas, and Jason Ryan. "Additionally, Holder was serving as deputy attorney general during the Elian Gonzalez debacle. Federal agents raided the Miami home of the 6-year-old boy's family as part of an operation to take him into custody and return him to his father in Cuba."

The family is talking, still and already: "He's going to do great in this job because Eric is fair, he's smart, he's just an outstanding gentleman. We love him," sister-in-law Deborah Holder tells the New York Daily News. Says mom Miriam: "I'm a proud mother."

Holder himself -- not so much: "Asked on Monday whether he expected to be nominated, Holder responded in an e-mail: 'Who knows?' " Matt Apuzzo and Lara Jakes Jordan report in the Chicago Sun-Times.
This just in from Hillary madness -- doubts, and new opportunities, all out a little too widely for them not to be aired intentionally.

"Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has reservations about accepting an appointment as secretary of state in the Obama administration, an adviser to Mrs. Clinton who is familiar with her thinking said on Tuesday," The New York Times' Raymond Hernandez and Michael Luo report. "It was unclear if Mrs. Clinton's stated hesitation was part of a bargaining tactic as the Obama team weighs whether to appoint her secretary of state, a genuine moment of indecision or, perhaps, a signal that she was preparing to withdraw from consideration."

Said the unnamed adviser: "If you are secretary of state you work for the president. . . . If you are a senator, you work for yourself and the people that elected you."

And a sentence that says so much about the politics of all of this: "She thinks Obama has been great to ask, and she has been well-treated during the process."

ABC's George Stephanopoulos, on "GMA" Wednesday: "I still think it's likely -- but no final decision has been made, in part because Sen. Clinton herself hasn't firmly decided that this is the job she wants." He added that an "agreement is emerging" regarding President Clinton's business dealings and finances.

Politico's Glenn Thrush gets a similar read from an unnamed adviser: Clinton "remains deeply 'torn' between the possibility of serving in Obama's cabinet and remaining in the Senate to 'help pass health care and work on a broad range of domestic issues,' " Thrush reports. "That comment jibes with what others close to Clinton have been saying since the Secretary of State chatter began last week: that Clinton is conflicted and the deal far from done, despite screaming headlines in outlets including the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper claiming the offer was made and accepted."

(A classic: "We've gotten rid of all the other idiots," joked one Clinton confidant, a reference to the Clinton campaign's propensity for leaks.)

What of these efforts in the Senate? "Clinton's allies have maneuvered to secure the New York lawmaker a role more prominent than her seniority entitles her to, in recognition of her historic run for the White House," the AP's David Espo reports.