Reports: Clinton to accept Secretar of State offer John Byrne

Published: Thursday November 20, 2008





Print This Email This President-elect Barack Obama will name Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as his secretary of State shortly after Thanksgiving, two senior Obama aides told Politico's Mike Allen late Thursday. AP confirmed quickly thereafter.



The New York Times reported Friday that Clinton would accept the offer.



A transition aide "told The Associated Press that the two camps have worked out financial disclosure issues involving Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, and the complicated international funding of his foundation that operates in 27 countries. The aide said Obama and Hillary Clinton have had substantive conversations about the secretary of state job."



Politico's Allen said Clinton was "likely to accept," though Clinton aides didn't respond to a request for comment. Clinton's aides have been broadly leaking information about her potential nomination to media outlets.



Former President Bill Clinton authorized unprecedented disclosures about his finances to Obama's vetting team, and transition lawyers are satisfied, officials told Allen.



Clinton vigorously contested Obama for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.



The Obama team has been plagued by leaks in recent weeks as news of probably nominees have flooded into reporters' ears. In a front page story Friday, the Washington Post opined about a campaign that had run a tight ship -- which has of late been springing leaks as it arrives in Washington.



Previous leak "control has all but dissolved in the leak-centric world of Washington," the Post said. "Every day since Nov. 4, the president-elect's transition staff has alerted reporters of planned activities for Obama and Biden. And invariably, those events have been more or less ignored in favor of the latest leak of a selection for the Cabinet or White House staff."



"There is nothing they can do about it -- vetting and FBI background checks require a lot of calls, and that leads to leaks," Steve Elmendorf, a longtime aide to former House minority leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO) and now a lobbyist in Washington, told the paper.



