New York Senator,
and former presidential contender Hillary Clinton has
accepted the post of Secretary of State under the incoming
Obama administration. President-elect Barack Obama
made the announcement Monday morning, introducing the
lineup of key cabinet appointees for foreign affairs
and national security.
Obama cited
Clinton's diplomatic ties as first lady in the 1990s as a
strength, as well as her service in the Senate Armed
Services Committee, and the Transformation Advisory
Group to the Joint Forces Command.
"Hillary's
appointment is a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness
of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our
alliances," he said at the press conference. "I have no
doubt that Hillary Clinton is the right person to lead
our State Department, and to work with me in tackling
this ambitious foreign policy agenda."
Obama also tapped
current Defense Secretary Robert Gates to keep his
position. Gates was appointed in 2006 after Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld stepped down. Gates was the director of the
CIA from 1991 to 1993, making him the only officer to
rise from an entry-level job to director, according to
a press release. Before taking the secretary position, Gates
was president of Texas A&M University.
Eric Holder, a
beltway attorney at Covington & Burling, and deputy
attorney general under former president Bill Clinton, was
chosen to serve as attorney general. Former President
Ronald Regan appointed him in 1988 to be an associate
superior court judge for the District of Columbia, and
he was later appointed in 1993 as D.C.'s U.S.
Attorney. Holder would be the nation's first
African-American attorney general.
Arizona Governor
Janet Napolitano was named to head the Department of
Homeland Security. Napolitano was her state's U.S. Attorney,
and she led a statewide domestic terrorism
investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing. She
established the first state-level homeland security strategy
in the nation and opened the first state counter-terrorism
center, and helped write laws to break up human
smuggling rings.
Dr. Susan Rice,
who was Obama's senior foreign policy advisor during his
presidential campaign, will assume the post of United Nation
Ambassador. During the Clinton administration she was
the U.S. assistant secretary of state, and she served
in the National Security Council.
Retired Marine
Corps General Jim Jones will be Obama's National Security
Advisor. Obama said that Jones "understands the connection
between energy and national security, and has worked
on the frontlines of global instability -- from Kosovo
to northern Iraq to Afghanistan." As a silver star
general, Jones encouraged NATO allies to include defending
energy infrastructures as a part of international security.
Clinton's vetting
for the position prompted her husband, former president
Bill Clinton, to release the names of 208,000 donors for the
William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, which funds
international initiatives on HIV/AIDS, climate change,
the economy, and other issues. Bill Clinton would be
asked to restrict his role at his foundation as well as his
paid speechmaking. Lawyers for Obama and Bill Clinton
examined the former president's finances, setting up
guidelines for his future activities if his wife does
take the job.
New York governor
David Paterson would have to appoint a replacement for
Hillary Clinton in the Senate. While Paterson has yet to
name any possibilities, some speculate that state
attorney general Andrew Cuomo, congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (whose
father was once New York's senator), and others may have a
shot at the job. Columbia University political science
professor Sharyn O'Halloran told Fox News on Nov. 21
that another contender is New York City Council
Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay person to hold
one of the city's highest ranking posts. (Michelle Garcia,
The Advocate)
