Hillary Going Rogue?

File this under very, very interesting. In June, I pointed out Hillary's hiring of Sidney Blumenthal as a strong signal she may go rogue on Obama. Guess what? Obama isn't letting Hillary have her Sidney, she can eat it, instead - there's even more.

They move her top guy on Iran to the WH? And now, Hillary is giving campaign-like speeches with VIP attendees at the Council on Foreign Relations? Perhaps as in Bill's case, this marriage wasn't made in heaven, folks! Stay tuned. Hillary must be fuming that she can't even hire her own staff.

With a few exceptions — during the presidential primary campaign, she had derided the idea of engaging Iran — the speech sounded like one Mrs. Clinton might have given as a candidate, when she sought to make her foreign policy credentials a trump card over the rival who is now her boss.

She even marshaled a cheering section of special envoys and other senior American diplomats in the first few rows at the Council on Foreign Relations. Faced with a White House that has tended to centralize control over policy, Mrs. Clinton is defending her prerogatives as an influential, but loyal, member of the president’s team.

In recent weeks, the administration’s top Iran policy maker was reassigned from the State Department to the White House’s National Security Council; Mrs. Clinton’s candidate to lead the United States Agency for International Development has been tangled up in a vetting process; and she has failed to get her choices into some plum ambassadorships, notably Japan, which went to a fund-raiser for President Obama.

Also, the White House recently scuttled Mrs. Clinton’s effort to bring Sidney Blumenthal, a journalist and confidant of both her and former President Bill Clinton, into the State Department.

Comments

[mark l.]

wow.
50% of the vote in the democratic primary gets zero clout in this admin.

they are right to be scared of sid, but overtly rejecting him is only going to intensify his zeal.

clearly there are two camps in the state dept, and the one that isn't pro-hillary panicked. somehow, I don't see the refusal to hire as a death blow to sid's career. It just means he has more time to focus on the issues that those within the dept didn't want him going near.

If i were a betting man, I'd wager that hillary has 3-5 people tracking her every move and every information request.

rejecting sid would suggest there was something that has to be kept hidden from hillary, particularily a 'shadow' state dept.

considering the role of state is to divert 'investment' into other countries, they wh could ill afford someone discovering the payouts.

[mark l.]

hillary has been biting her tongue over iran, nk, and honduras...
the admin hired her to play the moderate against obama's dove stance, but she isn't dancing for them.

despite these initial intentions, she is heavily filtered-and the "good cop-bad cop" theme never plays out. the elbow? seemed like a good time to step off stage for a moment and let them have obama have a go at foreign policy.

if congress falls in 2010, she leaves within a month. the resume will suffer little in distnugishing 2 years or 4 at secretary of state. my best guess is that samantha powers is now the real power at State, and hillary's role is a mere formality.

suffering the rejection of blumenthal is probably the last cheek she will turn. when obama weakens, in the next 1-3 years, she will go into "eye for an eye" mode. team clinton v. team obama? after watching both, itiisn't even close.

(a small aside: I saw the fourth bumpersticker, in the past two weeks: "I miss bill.") the most interesting riff in politics isn't to be found in the gop, but within the democrat party.

[Anon]

Hmmm,

This is interesting. I tend to agree, that if the Dems lose Congress she will step down.

The Clintons, just like a cat, the lives keep on coming.

[Roux]

For a second there I thought you said she was going commando. Whew.

[seekeronos]

She will be appointed POTUS before 2011 is finished, in the aftermath of the complete economic collapse when we are staring down 35% or greater inflation and 25% unemployment

... This is a very strong gut feeling, and largely because she will have the backing of the Rockefellers since Obama might not be dancing for them quite as planned.