« The Crankiness of the Backbench LoserTalk Talk W/ Mullahs »

Two-Fer

They always did work as a team. Bill for Hill’s seat? UPDATE, Bill swears he doesn’t want it. Bill for Senate speculation first, CNN: 

(CNN) — After eight years as senator from New York, Hillary Clinton is trading places, moving from Congress to the incoming administration.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama announced that he asked his former rival to be his secretary of state.

That means the scramble begins to replace Clinton on Capitol Hill. Among those mentioned to take her seat as New York’s junior senator is her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

At a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, after Obama announced her selection, Clinton said she wanted to “thank my fellow New Yorkers who have, for eight years, given me the joy of a job I love with the opportunity to work on issues I care deeply, in a state that I cherish.”

Clinton added that “leaving the Senate is very difficult for me.”

The task of choosing a successor falls to David Paterson, New York’s Democratic governor. Whomever he picks would serve for two years, before a special election in November 2010 to decide who fills the last two years of Clinton’s term.

Paterson has a strong bench to choose from. There are a number of contenders, including at least eight members of New York’s delegation in the House of Representatives, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Caroline Kennedy, and her cousin, Robert Kennedy Jr.

…

In an op-ed column last week in The Washington Post, journalists Karl Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac urged Paterson to “send Bill Clinton to the Senate.”

…

But some Democratic strategists who used to work for Bill Clinton don’t think the former president would want to go from leader of the free world to being the junior senator from New York. 

I wouldn’t bet on it. If John Kerry is bored being a do-nothing junior senator, I’m willing to be Bill Clinton is bored … doing nothing, and would enter the Democratic Congress as a junior senator in name only. Much like the wife. The wife’s interest in State and his willingness to reveal his deepest secrets on her behalf makes that much more sense. So, does Bill carry Obama’s water in the Senate, or guard Hill’s back and give her yet another strongpoint in her strategic encirclement of the Oval Office?   

CNN again: Bill doesn’t want it, honest.

Former President Bill Clinton has no interest in replacing his wife in the U.S. Senate, his spokesman said, adding any speculation that he would be interested is “completely false.”

As Hillary Clinton prepares to make the move from Capitol Hill to the incoming administration following her nomination yesterday as President-elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, the race is on to replace her in the Senate.

Monday Hillary Clinton said “leaving the Senate is very difficult for me.”

The task of choosing a successor to Clinton will be just as tough. That job falls to David Paterson, New York’s Democratic governor.

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton said the senator will remain in office through her confirmation, and Paterson said Monday that he’ll announce his choice in January.

That’s a long time. I dunno about you, but I’m beginning to like the idea of an Obama administration with a little palace intrigue. OK, a lot of palace intrigue.

More CNN: Limbaugh thinks the Hill appointment was a masterstroke by Obama, removing a 2012 challenger. “Brilliant.” Maybe. But what about 2009, 2010 and 2011?

Topics: Clintons

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:24 am on Tuesday, December 2, 2008

2 Responses to “Two-Fer”

1. Jim Treacher Says:
   December 2nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm

   Bill hasn’t been interested in Hillary’s seat since Chelsea was born.

2. J.M. Heinrichs Says:
   December 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm

   “completely false”
   Could be, in the sense that 50% +1 is an absolute majority.

   Cheers

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.