Hillary gets Sec of State nod on Monday; Bill will cough up secret donor names
The Clintons refused to tell the public who was donating millions upon millions of dollars to Billy Boy’s charitable foundation and library fund during her presidential run. But in a deal with Team Obama, this long-sought-after disclosure is apparently the price they are willing to pay to secure her Secretary of State nomination.
It will be announced on Monday, according to wire reports:
President-elect Barack Obama planned to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state on Monday, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.
Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said Saturday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.
To clear the way for his wife to take the job, former President Bill Clinton agreed to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation. He’ll also refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, and will cease holding C.G.I. meetings overseas.
Bill Clinton’s business deals and global charitable endeavors were expected to create problems for the former first lady’s nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to his post-presidential work.
Here’s what we do know about Clinton’s foreign backers as a result of voluntary disclosures, via USAToday from April 2008:
Donors have pledged more than $500 million for construction of the library and for the Clinton Foundation, which administers the library as well as his global anti-AIDS and sustainable development campaigns.
That is an enormous amount for someone to be raising from friends, business partners, foreign governments and interested parties who are either barred from making campaign contributions or limited to the $2,300 maximum. Because of the former president’s unusual position and the sheer size of this conduit into a potential presidential administration, the complete list of donors should be made public.
Some donors volunteered their names at the time of their gifts or when asked by reporters. What little is known about the others suggests that a good number are as interested in influencing public policy, or benefiting from the Clintons’ worldwide ties, as they are in supporting presidential scholarship or economic development.
The Saudi royal family gave $10 million, according to The Washington Post, and numerous foreign governments have given $1 million. The largest contributors appear to include Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú, Canadian mining entrepreneur Frank Giustra and the Lundin Group, a Canadian oil and gas company. Each has publicly pledged $100 million for development projects.
These gifts raise a number of questions, particularly in the case of Giustra, who in 2005 flew with Clinton to Kazakhstan, where his connections to the former president impressed officials enough to win him a lucrative uranium mining contract. They also raise the question of what favors might be sought by other donors who don’t want to be identified.
Clinton argues that the confidentiality he promised his donors should take precedence over calls for transparency…
Never mind all that now. Hillary’s got a Foggy Bottom office with her name on it. Confidentiality, schmonfidentiality.
Should be quite a treasure trove when those full donor lists are released.
They are going to be released, aren’t they, Mr. Hope and Change?
***
The NYT reports on the other conditions the Clintons agreed to:
The disclosure of contributors is among nine conditions that Mr. Clinton signed off on during discussions with representatives of Mr. Obama; all go beyond the requirements of law. Among other issues, he agreed to incorporate his Clinton Global Initiative separately from his foundation so that he has less direct involvement. The initiative, which promotes efforts to fight disease, poverty and climate change, would no longer hold annual meetings outside of the United States or accept new contributions from foreign governments.
Mr. Clinton also agreed to submit his future personal speeches and business activities for review by State Department ethics officials and, if necessary, by the White House counsel’s office.
The former president’s web of business and charitable activities raised questions about how he could continue to travel the world soliciting multimillion-dollar contributions for his foundation and collecting six-figure speaking fees for himself from foreign organizations and individuals while his wife conducted American foreign policy.
Lawyers for Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama spent days crafting the agreement in hopes of addressing any concerns about Mr. Clinton’s activities. He had previously said he would do whatever the Obama transition team asked in order to make it possible for his wife to serve without questions. Mr. Obama’s team said it was satisfied that the concessions Mr. Clinton made should defuse any potential controversy. Until Saturday, only some elements of the agreement had become public.
Neither Mr. Obama’s office nor Mr. Clinton’s office would comment. The disclosure of Mr. Clinton’s full agreement on a Saturday night might have the effect of drawing less attention to it while keeping the focus Monday on Mrs. Clinton.
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Holy crap, Batman. That’s a lot of quid pro quo.
The names of Bill Clinton donors/associates/co-conspirators will never see the light of day. We will be assured that all has been reviewed and there is nothing to see here. Keep moving.
Smell the Change ™
I hope they block as many as they can. The Republicans THOUGHT
I hope they block as many as they can. The Republicans THOUGHT they were putting these ambush nomination hearings behind them when they confirmed the worst Supreme ever- Ginsberg of NAMBLA shame. What good did it do? The Dems ambushed one Bush nomination after another.
We are fighting for our way of life and in many cases our lives–the Hell with polite. Fight.
will bama supply his b-cert?? probably not…supposedly 5 Dec the supremes take it up…and as for Billy Bob how many names will be off the list??
I wish more people would feel as strong about this as you do.
A BIG DITTO FROM ME ARIZONA.
GOD! I miss people with integrity. When I was a a kid it was the norm. What the hell happened to our world?
Read Atlas Shrugged.
Interesting article going to appear in odumbo’s Chicago Newspaper tomorrow about his elegibility.
http://wehategringos.com/whg/?p=3639
Yep, and you would think after years of Republicans playing nicey nice, they would’ve learned a lesson. It doesn’t work that way, nor is it ever reciprocal. WHEN was the last time the Dems were nice and professional about anything? Harry Reid…never, Pefloozi? Never,
If another Ginsberg ends up on the court, we’re doomed. That woman is a full blown disgrace on so many fronts, I con’t have the patience to explain.
She is a despicable specimen of a human being. If you can even call her that.
Are any of these anonymous donors in those FBI files that Hillary had stashed in her White House closet back in the day?
Rev. Wright’s Porche on eBay
Hillary and Bill have sold their souls. Again.
Um, they are married in name only, and for her own good, she should divorce him and move in with Donna Shalala.
With President-Elect BroBama now set to appoint Dr. Susan Rice as US Ambassador to the UN we’ll see how it goes: two Alpha Females fighting for the limelight. Dr. Susan Rice was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under the Clinton Co-Presidency AND a leading force to get the US involved in Darfur.
I hope the Republicans in the Senate trash her the way the Democrats trashed John Bolton. Tit for Tat, but twice as fast, twice as hard.
At what point, is the laundry so dirty that you decide to throw it out and buy new? What is it with these people, that they feel the need to surround themselves with the most despicable cretins? I thought Mr. Hopey Changy was suuposed to bring us fresh air, not sniffing farts out of the bedsheets again?
Me too, AN!
And because Republicans have gravitas in areas of defense – something Democrats do not – it’ll carry much more weight and be far more effective at squelching Sue Rice than the left’s sour-grapes swipes at Bolton.
I heard someone on MSNBC call this a center right bunch. Not buying it myself.
Ditto. The “news” is more appropriately described as “propaganda” these days.
Geee, and just think, Obamas going to have full support of the house and possiably fillibuster proof majority in the senate. (not counting the rinos who will make that essentualy the case anyway) The who concept of checks and balances are gone. Obama can do whatever he wants. The only check will be his desire to remain “popular”. And maybe, MAYBE the supreme court.
That won’t last long, either.
Anyone else thinking Hillary just got outmaneuvered again?
I don’t expect the list of donors to Bill’s presidential library to be released. Not when Obama can use it as blackmail to keep Hillary in line as Secretary of State and out of his hair in 2012.
This isn’t good. Obama’s not acting like he’s as dumb as Carter. He’s certainly using his head for his own purposes, but he’s not going to be a pushover opponent.
On December 1st, 2008 at 8:38 am, TacitEagle said:
I’d say in this case it’s more like a short-term lease; because at the first sign of trouble for Obama, HRC will be out the door to snag the Dem nod from him for 2012.