An Option for Clinton: Enhanced Senate Role
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the Senate are prepared to give Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton a still-undefined leadership role there if she does not become Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Democratic officials close to the situation said Thursday.
Friends say Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s lack of seniority in a chamber that is run by it has left her somewhat disenchanted.
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The discussions about an enhanced position for Mrs. Clinton are factoring into her deliberations over joining the cabinet, the officials said. Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, is wrestling with whether to abandon her independence to become the nation’s top diplomat or remain in a chamber where lack of seniority limits her influence.
Mrs. Clinton asked to join the Senate Democratic leadership after the Nov. 4 election, and party leaders began trying to figure out a way to accommodate her without dislodging any of the current leaders, Democratic officials said. The conversations, they added, preceded Mr. Obama’s approach to her about becoming secretary of state and are on the table if she turns the job down.
Although advisers to Mr. Obama have said he has not made a formal offer, most Democrats believe the decision is hers to make, and friends said Thursday that she was wavering.
One friend said Mrs. Clinton decided late Wednesday to say no, reasoning that she would have more freedom in the Senate. By midday Thursday, the friend said, she was “back in the indecisive column again.” By the end of the day, another associate said she could accept by Friday.
At the end of a confused day in which even Mr. Obama’s advisers seemed unsure what was happening, a transition official reached out to reporters Thursday night to say that the president-elect’s team believed things were on track with Mrs. Clinton and that her nomination could be announced after Thanksgiving.
The decision could affect the composition of Mr. Obama’s overall national security team as he tries to balance personalities and experience. The formation of that team appeared fluid Thursday. A senior Democratic adviser said Mr. Obama had talked with a retired Marine general, James L. Jones, former commander of NATO military forces, about serving as secretary of state or national security adviser.
The uncertainty, a week after Mr. Obama met with Mrs. Clinton in Chicago to discuss the idea of her leading the State Department, kept Washington spinning in feverish speculation about whether the two former rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination would team up. Mrs. Clinton was keeping counsel only with a tight circle of confidants, leaving even prominent veterans of the Clinton political operation guessing as to her intentions.
But driving her consideration, friends said, is a sense of disenchantment with the Senate, where despite her stature she remains low in the ranks of seniority that governs the body. She was particularly upset, they said, at the reception she felt she received when she returned from the campaign after collecting 18 million votes and almost becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party.
“Her experience in the Senate with some of her colleagues has not been the easiest time for her,” said one longtime friend who insisted on anonymity in exchange for sharing Mrs. Clinton’s sentiments. “She’s still a very junior senator. She doesn’t have a committee. And she’s had some disappointing times with her colleagues.”
In particular, the friend said, Mrs. Clinton was upset when the leadership rejected the possibility of her heading a special new task force with a staff and a mandate to develop legislation expanding health care coverage.
In dismissing the idea, Senate leaders noted that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, chairman of the health committee, planned to play the leading role in shaping a plan for universal coverage even as he battles brain cancer. In the current Congress, Mrs. Clinton is eighth in seniority among Democrats on Mr. Kennedy’s committee.
Other Democratic officials said Mrs. Clinton had then wanted to serve in a broader leadership role, perhaps as chairwoman of the Democratic Policy Committee, a sort of internal “think tank” with a staff, a budget and office space. But the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, refused to give her that post, because he did not want to force out the current chairman, Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, the officials said.
Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said it was “nothing but poppycock” to suggest that she had wanted to push Mr. Dorgan aside. Mr. Reines added that after the election, Mrs. Clinton told Mr. Reid and Mr. Kennedy “that she stands ready to help President-elect Obama in any and every way she can to enact comprehensive health care reform, which she has sought for nearly two decades.”
Mr. Reines scoffed at the notion that his boss was disaffected. “As her colleagues on both sides of the aisle will tell you,” he said, “Senator Clinton doesn’t get disappointed. She gets to work.”
Senate Democrats gathered Tuesday to re-elect their leadership, including Mr. Dorgan, without offering any of the top slots to Mrs. Clinton. But Mr. Reid told those at the closed-door meeting that he was looking for a way to create a new leadership role for her, two people who were in the room said. The same day, Mr. Kennedy also chose her to head one of three health care working groups looking at legislation.
Mr. Reid wants to come up with some sort of leadership position to recognize Mrs. Clinton’s standing as one of the party’s most popular figures, and aides said he was confident that he could arrive at something with sufficient muscle to appeal to her. She served as chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee until two years ago, but it afforded her little real power.
Democratic officials said Mrs. Clinton had not tried to use the Obama discussions to gain leverage with the Senate leadership. “The fact is that this is something that the leadership has been working on for a few weeks now,” a senior Senate aide said.
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