Cheat Sheet

Interesting note from Elizabeth Drew's New York Review of Books piece on Hillary Clinton and the State Department: "Mrs. Clinton's and her closest advisers' turning a suggestion by the President-elect that she might, among other things, head the State Department into an "offer" and reports that she was agonizing over whether to accept it, did not please [Obama] officials in Chicago, some of whom hoped that issues over disclosure of Bill Clinton's post-presidential record might block the appointment. … Statements by the Hilary camp on November 21 saying that 'she's ready' for the position but then backtracking, saying that some matters were 'under discussion,' typified the whole mess, the only snag thus far in an otherwise unusually smooth transition..." It was "an object lesson to Obama (which he had reason to know already) that getting involved with the Clintons is rarely uncomplicated."