THE HILLARY THING

Posted at 8:58 a.m. ET

Another fine British journalist, Phil Sherwell, has a good take on all the chatter that Hillary Clinton is headed for the State Department.  There's a little problem, Sherwell notes, and its name is Bill. 

The President-Elect has reportedly sounded out his former bitter rival to be the international face for his new administration - just months after she mocked his foreign policy inexperience and criticised his plans to talk to America's enemies.

But the ex-First Lady would first have to go through a gruelling confirmation process on Capitol Hill at which, The Sunday Telegraph has learned, Republican senators will raise her husband's secrecy-shrouded business deals and fund-raising for his glitzy presidential library and foundation.

Are those right-wing primitives suggesting that our Bill Clinton would do something shady?  Those people never learn.

Former President Bill Clinton has consistently refused to provide the names of the donors, but newspaper investigations have identified a slew of foreign contributors, many from oil-rich Gulf states. His lucrative consultancy work for a friend's investment group has also involved dealings with Arab partners.

Republican strategists are dusting off plans to expose Mr Clinton's financial ties, which they will argue represent a serious conflict of interest for his wife as the country's top diplomat.

Question:  Hillary knows this is ahead of her.  Does she really want to go through an interrogation when she has a great career in the Senate?  And the conflict-of-interest issue is serious.  Could it affect her view of Middle East terrorism, or the Arab-Israeli conflict?

His (Obama's) aides consistently urged Sen Clinton to provide full details of financial transactions which made the couple rich after they left the White House in debt - and separately helped turn the Clinton Foundation into one of the world's leading philanthropic organisations. Mr Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe once dubbed Mrs Clinton "one of the most secretive politicians in America today."

Unlike Barack "I never knew my pastor believed that" Obama. 

New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and Massachusetts senator John Kerry are also on Mr Obama's short list for Secretary of State. But after Mrs Clinton flew to Chicago for talks with the president-elect on Thursday, aides to both briefed that he had asked her if she would be interested in the job and that she said she would consider it.

Other problems:

Her appointment would also cast fresh doubt over the direction of Mr Obama's foreign policy after he said during the primary campaign that he would be willing to meet with the leaders of countries such as Iran and North Korea without preconditions.

Mrs Clinton heavily criticised that view as proof that he did not have the experience or knowledge to run oversee American foreign policy. So, if nominated, she would have to implement a policy that she ridiculed just earlier this year. 

She's a Clinton.  That's what life is about.

Look, it's fascinating.  We certainly don't want Kerry in that job.  He'd never speak English to us again.  And Richardson, despite much experience, doesn't come across as a heavyweight.  At least with Clinton we'll get some entertainment, and four year of rumors.

November 16, 2008.