The Note

The Note, 1/13/09: Team’s Work-- Glimpse of New Team in Action, as Clinton, Obama Fan Out on Hill

January 13, 2009 8:24 AM

By RICK KLEIN

There will be two senators from Illinois after all. 

There are now two presidents working together on the TARP (even though one is a troubled asset himself). 

Obama 2.0 is getting a rollout (or the hint of one) before day one of the administration. 

There will be a second set of final words from George W. Bush. 

The two 2008 Democratic presidential finalists will both be on the Hill on Tuesday. (Winners get the most pomp, though not necessarily the warmest welcomes.)

It’s an early taste of the Obama team in action, leading with the formidable pair of rivals-turned-friends -- with always a threat of a rivalry again. (Obama, Clinton, Kerry . . . that’s a lot of folks who wanted to be president setting foreign policy.)

The Clinton storyline of 2008 gets its postscript with Tuesday’s Secretary of State confirmation hearings -- and when’s the last time there was so little drama around when the Clintons were involved?

And President-elect Barack Obama heads down to sell the TARP and the bailout -- his first legislative battle officially joined even before his predecessor says goodbye.

No major worries for his Cabinet choices -- with the exception of Bill Richardson (who couldn’t save himself) and Eric Holder (who would have much less to worry about if Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., didn’t have a primary looming next year.)

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has her Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing start at 9:30 am ET Tuesday. The hearing should be done inside a day -- clean, neat, and easy as they come. 

Maybe some noise, though -- and here’s a roadmap for senators who want to make it: “Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found,” the AP’s Sharon Theimer reports. “The overlap of names on former President Bill Clinton's foundation donor list and business interests whose issues she championed raises new questions about potential ethics conflicts between her official actions and her husband's fundraising.” 

“The letters and donations involve pharmaceutical companies and telecommunications and energy interests. An aide to the senator said she made no secret of her involvement in many of the issues. Bill Clinton's foundation declined to say when it received the donations or precisely how much was contributed,” Theimer writes.

A new concept for the new job: “Hillary Clinton will drop a new idea at her secretary of state confirmation hearing today: ‘smart power.’ It's something President-elect Barack Obama and Clinton believe is sorely lacking in the Bush White House,” the New York Daily News' Michael McAuliff writes.

“A source close to the transition process tells ABC News that the two main themes of Clinton's statement before the committee will be ‘the renewal of American leadership,’ and ‘the revitalization of diplomacy to promote our security interests and advance our values,’ ” ABC’s Jake Tapper reports. “The source says that Clinton will emphasize that she'll actively work in cooperation with Congress on foreign policy in a bipartisan and pragmatic way. She will push for smarter diplomacy and more funding for the State Department.” 

“Obama transition team sources say Sen. Clinton is ready for questions about what might be the thorniest issue today -- the ethics review and disclosure process for her husband's activities with the Clinton Foundation, an issue the ranking Republican on the committee will almost certainly address,” Tapper reported on “Good Morning America” Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal’s Monica Langley: “At a time of huge crises around the world, Sen. Clinton wants to take back some of the turf now held by the Defense Department. In a slap at President George W. Bush for increased reliance on force, or so-called hard power, Sen. Clinton will outline a broader arsenal of diplomatic tools that she calls ‘smart power,’ including economic agreements and social development that ‘invests in our common humanity’ to achieve improved security, advisers say.” 

It may not be a bad show: “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is expected to face pointed questions today during her secretary of state confirmation hearings about her husband's post-presidential financial ties, with thorny issues surrounding funding of former President Bill Clinton's foundation likely to be explored by GOP senators. But those questions aside, the hearings are unlikely to produce major fireworks. No roadblocks have emerged to suggest Clinton will have any trouble winning Senate confirmation this week.” 

She did her homework: “In preparation for today's questioning, Clinton has read thousands of pages of briefing materials and fielded questions at mock hearings, said Wendy Sherman, a former State Department official who leads President-elect Obama's State Department transition team,” USA Today’s Ken Dilanian writes. 

Her husband won’t be in the room, but senators will bring him there in spirit: “Although Bill Clinton is not expected to attend today's Senate confirmation hearing on his wife's nomination to be secretary of state, the former president will loom large in the proceedings,” The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman writes. “As Hillary Clinton lays out her worldview today, presenting what aides say will be the most detailed account yet of how President-elect Barack Obama's team intends to handle problems around the globe, many observers are looking forward to a return to the pragmatic approach espoused by Bill Clinton, who relied on high-level negotiations, special envoys, and international treaties to advance US interests.” 

More questions on the Bill front: “Bill Clinton will continue raising money for Democratic candidates even after his wife is installed as secretary of state, a spokesman for the former president told The Hill on Monday,” Reid Wilson reports for The Hill. “Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna confirmed Clinton would continue as one of the party's most prolific fundraisers during the coming years.”

How far is drama away -- really? “In signing up the Clintons -- always two for the price of one -- Mr. Obama is no doubt hoping to unite his party and mute Democratic criticism when mistakes happen. He is also hiring someone whose prominence and allies make her impossible to fire, even as she and her husband have a history of cutting ethical corners. Good luck,” writes The Wall Street Journal editorial page.

A few some sharp questions await, but she (like just about all her fellow soon-to-be Cabinet officials) is very much on track: “Some hearings probably ought to come with a warning: Love Fest in Progress,” Politico’s Chris Frates writes. “Who might those lucky picks be? The Insiders, that handful of present and former House and Senate members plucked by President-elect Barack Obama to join his Cabinet.” 

Don’t forget that new Mr. Chairman: “[Sen. John] Kerry, an acknowledged authority on many aspects of the international landscape he will be surveying, said that he was looking only forward, that too much was made of personal political wrangling, and that he was settling in for an aggressive engagement on foreign affairs in concert with the administration, or on his own if need be,” per The New York Times’ Carl Hulse. 

“When  Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) gavels the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to order today and welcomes Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to her confirmation hearing as President-elect Barack Obama's nominee to be secretary of state, he will mark the ascendance of a new triumvirate dominating the foreign policy arena,” Anne E. Kornblut writes in The Washington Post. “The hearing will also call attention to a particularly awkward tangle of relationships.” 

Obama will have a bit of a harder time selling the financial legislation. If you thought TARP was unpopular before, leaven it with stories about how the money hasn’t been tracked, and it’s bitter indeed on the Hill.

May as well start now: “A week shy of taking office, President-elect Barack Obama already is putting his persuasion skills to a high-stakes test with Congress as he seeks access to the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout fund,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “Obama planned to be in the Capitol on Tuesday to meet with Senate Democrats. And his transition team prepared to dispatch top aides to meet with Senate Republicans this week in anticipation of a possible vote Thursday on whether to release the money from the embattled Troubled Asset Relief Program.” 

Trust me, Obama says: “In formally asking Monday for the release of the second half of the $700-billion financial bailout fund, President-elect Barack Obama is promising Congress he will do a better job than President Bush in using the money to help average Americans,” the Los Angeles Times’ Jim Puzzanghera and Peter Nicholas write. “The Democratic-controlled Congress is unlikely to block the request. But Obama is seeking to avoid a confrontation over economic recovery spending that could spill into his push for a roughly $800-billion stimulus package.” 

Team Obama doesn’t need/want restrictions on what it can do (with apologies to Barney Frank): “Obama transition team members, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely, said that most of what Frank sought was doable,” Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman write for McClatchy. Said one official: “We believe we can make most, if not all, of the reforms to the financial stability program administratively.” 

The benefit of the doubt(ers): “We should not allow our disappointment at the Bush administration's poor handling of the . . . program to prevent the Obama administration from using the funds in more appropriate ways,” House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said in a statement. 

Jumping in: “Even before assuming office, Obama is taking an unusually direct role in legislative efforts to move both bills forward, personally phoning lawmakers and dispatching senior aides to Capitol Hill on a near-daily basis,” Shailagh Murray writes in The Washington Post. 

Some steam will be let off, but Obama’s first act as president won’t have to be a veto: “Republican and Democratic Senate leaders signaled on Monday that they would support the release of the second half of the Treasury’s $700 billion financial system bailout fund, despite anger among many rank-and-file lawmakers over the Bush administration’s management of the program,” David M. Herszenhorn and Edmund L. Andrews write in The New York Times. 

Some give: “Yesterday, he was forced to relent to skepticism on a separate politically complicated initiative, the economic stimulus package, by dropping his proposal to give businesses a $3,000 tax credit for every job they save or create,” Lori Montgomery and David Cho report in The Washington Post. “While the House is likely to approve the resolution [blocking thefunds], Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), said Senate leaders were optimistic that they could defeat the resolution in the Senate, allowing the funds to flow.”

Fast action coming -- not just on Gitmo: “President-elect Barack Obama is expected to move swiftly to reverse executive orders regarding torture of terror suspects, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and other controversial security policies, sources close to his transition said, in dramatic gestures aimed at reversing President Bush’s accumulation of executive power,” Politico’s Ben Smith and Lisa Lerer report. 

Meanwhile -- meet Senator Burris: “Roland Burris, whose appointment to the Senate was in limbo for nearly two weeks, was accepted Monday by Democratic leaders, and he immediately struck a conciliatory tone with the very people who had tried to keep him out of Congress,” Monique Garcia and Jill Zuckman write in the Chicago Tribune. “Burris' careful approach to the Blagojevich issue and his bridge-building rhetoric toward Senate Democrats were demonstrations of a skill that Burris has honed throughout his political career: the ability to avoid making enemies.” 

How did Burris and Blago stare down Reid and Durbin (and Obama)?

“The development prevented the impasse that has plagued Democrats from dragging on into Obama's inauguration festivities, and it capped a gradual retreat by the Senate's top Democrats,” the AP’s Liz Sidoti writes. 

Guess who’s coming to the big party? “This Sunday, while Barack Obama polishes off his inauguration address and enjoys a concert at the Lincoln Memorial, his controversial former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright will speak at Howard University's chapel service,” ABC’s Tahman Bradley reports.

Another clergyman in town has gay-rights groups (looking for a reason to de-escalate tensions) thrilled:

“The gay-rights movement is expressing elation over President-elect Barack Obama's invitation to gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson to give the opening invocation of inauguration week after reacting angrily to Obama's selection of evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation on Inauguration Day,” Dan Gilgoff writes for US News & World Report. “The Robinson invitation shows that ‘ultimately, Barack Obama is a friend to the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] community,’ says Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay-rights group. ‘I believe his administration is going to inspire us and advance our agenda more often than not.’ ” 

David Plouffe offers tidbits on Obama 2.0 (taking longer to roll out than the first version): “It is going to be a challenge, because it is much different than a political campaign,” Plouffe tells The Washington Post’s Lois Romano. “For those people that want to get involved on issues out in their community, we want to try to figure out the best way to try and help facilitate that. Now, the great thing about people these days is they don't really wait for your lead, they'll go out there and do it on their own. We'll have to determine which legislative initiatives are going to require the full weight of the grass roots.” 

(And Plouffe, on campaign mistakes: “Well for me personally, it was mishandling the Ohio-Texas primary back in March of '08. I think if we focused more on Texas, we might've been able to win the primary. And the price of that was that the primary went on for another three months.”) 

A big job for an architect of Obama 1.0: “President-elect Obama will name Julius Genachowski to chair the Federal Communications Commission, a Democratic official confirms,” per ABC’s Sunlen Miller. “Genachowski has a long background in technology an innovation - having worked as a senior official at the FCC and later as Special Counsel to the General Council of the FCC.  During Obama's campaign Genachowski worked as Chairman of the Technology, Media and Telecommunications policy working group -- and is much credited with the campaign's successful online strategy. He has continued to work with Obama during the transition, co-leading Obama's Technology, Innovation and Government Reform Group.”

White House moving day is one week away. Newsweek’s Tammy Haddad walks us through what it takes. 

For President Bush, the long goodbye: His prime-time farewell (something his father never did) will come Thursday at 8 pm ET. 

“The 43rd president will be speaking to a live audience, including ‘courageous people’ he has met with during his eight years in office,” ABC’s Jennifer Duck reports. 

That remarkable final news conference: “Looking back over the long arc of his turbulent presidency, Mr. Bush was by turns impassioned and defiant, reflective and light-hearted, even as he conceded that some things ‘didn’t go according to plan.’ He confessed a litany of mistakes, refused to talk about pardons, cautioned the Republican Party to be inclusive and wondered aloud what it would feel like to make coffee for his wife, Laura, at their ranch in Crawford, Tex., on the morning after Mr. Obama takes his place,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports in The New York Times. 

“By offering a wistful and introspective closing argument to the American people who elected him twice but then lost confidence in him, retiring President George W. Bush is attempting to write the first draft of his own history,” Tribune Co.’s Mark Silva writes. “First came a sober public confession of mistakes and disappointments in his final news conference Monday -- a remarkably personal moment for a president never prone to self-examination or questioning under the klieg lights. . . ” 

“On Thursday he is to make a prime-time address from the White House, which Bush's spokeswoman said was planned to "reflect on his time in office and the ways our country has changed these past eight years,” Silva writes. “But that televised farewell from the East Room is unlikely to echo the list of mistakes Bush acknowledged to reporters in the West Wing on Monday: prematurely declaring ‘mission accomplished’ in Iraq; failing to find the weapons of mass destruction cited as the reason for the Iraq war; the abuse of Iraqi prisoners; and his own campaigning for Social Security reform after reelection instead of trying to change immigration policy.”

The Kicker:

“Sarah Palin is the only part of the campaign that I won’t comment on publicly.” -- Meghan McCain, in an interview with a New Hampshire blogger, knowing when to back off. 

“There are now two men whose calls I always take -- Bill and Barack.” -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, excusing herself to take a phone call from the president-elect. 

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