As she awaits Senate confirmation as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton is filling out the senior echelon of the State Department, and keeping a respected career diplomat in one of the agency's most influential posts.

The diplomat, William Burns, is to stay on as the under secretary for political affairs, according to people informed of the decision. The unusual move has been popular within the diplomatic ranks, where Burns, a former ambassador to Russia and Jordan, is close to a revered figure.

Clinton is also expected to name Kurt Campbell as assistant secretary for East Asian affairs — a challenging post that has involved negotiating with North Korea on its nuclear program, though that task will now shift to other officials. Wendy Sherman, another incoming official, has long experience with North Korea, but it is unclear whether she will be involved this time.

Campbell, a seasoned Asia hand, was a defense official in Bill Clinton's administration. Sherman, a prominent figure in Democratic Party circles, advised Clinton on North Korea and has helped run the State Department transition for President-elect Barack Obama.

As Clinton prepares for her Senate hearing on Tuesday, she is also closing in on naming special emissaries to trouble spots in the Middle East, Iran and South Asia, several people said.

While Obama has not signed off on these positions, according to officials, Clinton is likely to name Richard Holbrooke, a longtime diplomat who brokered the Dayton accord that brought peace to Bosnia, as a special envoy to Pakistan and India, said people who have been told of the decision.

Dennis Ross, a veteran of Middle East peace negotiations in the Clinton and the first Bush administrations, is set to take over a portfolio focused on Iran, officials said. His job would not be called special envoy, given the lack of diplomatic ties between the United States and Iran.

Still, the appointment would be particularly significant, foreign policy analysts said, because it would underline Obama's resolve to begin engaging diplomatically with Tehran.

"Iran sits at the nexus of everything we care about; it is the single biggest foreign policy issue this administration will confront," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "This relationship is not going to come around quickly."

With the deepening crisis in Gaza, Clinton may also name a special envoy for Arab-Israeli issues. Richard Haass, a former State Department official in the Bush administration, and Daniel Kurtzer, who served as United States ambassador to Israel and Egypt, have both been mentioned.

Haass, who is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said he was flattered by the attention but had not been approached, according to his spokeswoman. Holbrooke did not reply to requests for comment, while Ross and Kurtzer declined to comment.

The parade of big names, Miller said, indicates that Obama and Clinton recognize that chronic problems in several regions will demand years of dogged diplomacy, as opposed to the focus on democratic transformation in the Bush era.

"What Barack Obama is inheriting is a set of almost intractable problems, and what he needs is a number of very smart special envoys," Miller said.

The retention of Burns, 52, will give the department an expert on Russia and the Middle East, at a time of new conflicts between Israel and the militant Palestinian group Hamas and simmering tension with Washington and Moscow. Insiders say he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the department and has skillfully navigated Republican and Democratic administrations.

While the post is typically filled by a career diplomat, it is rare for someone to be held over by a new administration.

At the same time, Clinton has named two powerful political appointees, James Steinberg and Jacob Lew, as deputies.

The reshuffling will move out a prominent diplomat, Christopher Hill, who led the arduous negotiations with North Korea. Several officials said they expected him to stay on in a new post, noting that he was Holbrooke's deputy in the Dayton peace talks and is still close to him.

For Clinton, the next challenge is passing muster with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Most observers said they expected her to get a warm reception. Clinton, some noted, has not yet resigned her Senate seat, guaranteeing her some professional courtesy.

In announcing the hearing Wednesday, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the new chairman of the committee and a man who hoped to be named secretary of state himself, did not forecast many hurdles.

"My friend and colleague Hillary Clinton will bring her years of experience and acute intellect to her position as America's top diplomat," Kerry said.




By Mark Landler, International Herald Tribune, January 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton is on her way to becoming the nation's top diplomat, with Democrats expecting a favorable Senate committee vote on her nomination next week and even Republicans singing her praises.

"I think she's a known commodity. She's been tested in a lot of ways," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "She expresses herself well, and I don't think she'll make any rookie mistakes."

The timetable for Clinton's confirmation has been closely watched because her departure from the Senate would give New York Gov. David Paterson, a fellow Democrat, the power to appoint her successor. Caroline Kennedy, the scion of a political dynasty, wants the job. Paterson has said he is considering her along with several other candidates.

Clinton is expected to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, with a committee vote two days later, before the start of a separate confirmation hearing for Susan Rice, President-elect Barack Obama's pick for U.N. ambassador.

If approved by the panel, Clinton could be confirmed by the full Senate before Obama takes office on Jan. 20.

In advance of the hearing, Clinton has been reaching out to individual senators through telephone calls and lengthy sit-down meetings, including an hourlong meeting last month with Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

On Wednesday, Clinton attended the Democrats' weekly policy lunch at the Capitol. She declined to talk with reporters afterward.

While Republicans are not expected to block Clinton's appointment, they do plan to raise questions about a potential conflict of interest with her husband's business dealings. Former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation has accepted millions of dollars from foreign governments and corporations, including Saudi Arabia.

Clinton's charity, which financed his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and charitable efforts in dozens of countries to reduce poverty and treat AIDS, released its financial records last month because of his wife's appointment.

Obama's spokesman said at the time that donors will continue to be disclosed on an annual basis.

One Senate Republican aide said that staff has just started to comb through the records and will want to make sure there aren't any problems.

"Transparency is something they're going to want to continue to see," said the aide, who requested anonymity because the staffer was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The lack of contention surrounding Clinton's nomination so far is at least in part a result of Senate protocol. Senators are generally willing to allow an incoming president to pick his Cabinet without too much interference.

They also tend to give a certain amount of leeway to one of their own; Clinton spent eight years as the junior senator from New York. While Republicans did not agree with her on such big-ticket political issues as health care and the economy, most GOP senators believe she worked well with them on day-to-day matters, according to Republican aides.

Clinton also is seen by many within the Senate as someone well versed on the nuances of foreign affairs and a strong supporter of Israel - a requirement for a Congress that has allied itself strongly with the Jewish nation.

"My friend and colleague Hillary Clinton will bring her years of experience and acute intellect to her position as America's top diplomat," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

By ANDREW MIGA and ANNE FLAHERTY, The Associated Press, January 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats plan next Wednesday to take up Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's nomination for secretary of state, in what is likely to be one of the highest-profile confirmation hearings for President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that "I expect everybody to be focused on the real issues that confront the country, and I think it will be a good hearing."

Clinton's will be one in a series of forthcoming Senate confirmation hearings. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D., Mass.), holds a hearing tomorrow on former Sen. Tom Daschle's nomination to be health and human services secretary, and also a hearing Friday on the nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis (D., Calif.) for labor secretary.




The Associated Press, January 7, 2009