Source: James Steinberg -- And Not Richard Holbrooke -- Close To Being Appointed Hillary's Deputy
James Steinberg, the deputy national security adviser under Bill Clinton, is close to being named as Hillary's deputy at the State Department, with the support of the Obama team, according to a source close to discussions between Obama's transition team and Hillary advisers.
"It's pretty close," the source says.
Former ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who earlier was the focus of some speculation for the post, is not in line for the post, partly because the Obama team doesn't want him there, the source adds.
The upshot of Steinberg in the Deputy Secretary of State post would be that someone who worked with the Obama team for months during the campaign is in the State post close st to Hillary. Steinberg was reportedly the author of a big speech Obama gave to AIPAC and helped craft Obama's positions on the Israeli peace process and Iran, among other things.
The Washington Post reported today that the Obama team wants Steinberg in the slot, and The Politico wrote last week that Democrats close to the process "expected" him to get it.
The source says that the Obama team doesn't want Holbrooke in the post because his accomplishments come with "collateral damage."
"They don't want him," the source said of the Obama team. "The collateral damage that he brings is too great for them to want to deal with. There will be a role for Holbrooke, but not as deputy."
Spokespeople for Obama and Clinton declined to comment.
Late Update: Spencer Ackerman, who's been all over this, provides some invaluable explanation and context.
Greg: Your editorial point of view is missing when it's most needed.
What "collateral damage" are we talking about?
December 2, 2008 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
fair question. the idea is that he's a bit of a bull in a china shop behind-the-scenes
December 2, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, another bolton. We definitely don't need that. Why can't we all just get along? A bull in a china shop as a diplomat really is a non-starter in my book.
December 2, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't want Holbrooke at State, because frankly I can't spend four years every time he is on TV turning to my wife and saying, "Robin Williams? Why is Robin Williams on my TV right now? I thought this was about Pakistan. Wait, that's not Robin Williams? I swear to God, that's Robin Williams! Come on, you're kidding me! That's Robin Williams! Isn't it? Come on!"
December 2, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You think Holbrooke looks like Robin Williams???
December 2, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holbrooke is an ass. A year ago when the world was convinced that Hillary would be the nominee, Holbrooke offered some advice to his younger state department colleagues like Rice: aligning yourself with Obama will harm your career because we won't forget who was with us and who wasn't.
December 2, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yea, talk about a slimeball. He will probably be ambassador to Iraq or Iran though.
December 2, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
James Steinberg was a vocal critic of the Iraq War and of Senator Clinton. Dick Holbrooke is closely aligned with the Clinton ideology, particularly on foreign policy. Steinberg as the number two in the State Department he will be Obama's eye's and ears.
December 2, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very, very good news. Holbrooke, the most hawkish of liberal hawks, was precisely one of the things I liked least about Clinton.
December 2, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who does the naming?
December 2, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillary gets to name her own staff, but in reality much of it will proceed from discussions between both sides
December 2, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. Couldn't understand why someone would be named without support from the Obama team.
So Clinton must have been thinking about this for the last two weeks? Was she given a list of acceptable possibilities? Or is that too much micromanaging?
December 2, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on...where's the good appointments? When will we see Richard Clarke and Joe Wilson?
December 2, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe Wilson? In an Obama administration? What planet are you living on?
Joe Wilson was one of Obama's most vitriolic critics. His attacks were nothing short of smear jobs and rivaled anything found on noquarter.
Go to HuffoPo and find some of his posts and you'll see why Wilson won't work in this administration or any other. He completely embarrassed himself with his base anti-Obama rantings.
December 2, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
And waiting until after the situation blew up in Iraq revealing how much of a f*cked up, "brilliant" idea to invade a country that did not have a gd thing with 9/11 to come out of the closet. Don't you think it would have been better for the op-ed before the invasion and after the lies in the state of the union? I do and I always wondered about that one.
December 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.
December 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
How's the weather in CT? I know if we have frost down here it's gotta be chilli up there?
December 2, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It turned wicked cold for awhile...the same clipper that was freezing y'all down in Georgia pushed temps into January territory around here.
I don't know how those who locked into a fixed rate for oil over the summer are going to handle this winter.
December 2, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about Gates? What do you think of that appointment? Or Jones? Or how about scowcroft advising obama?
December 2, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scowcroft is exactly the kind of guy I'm glad Obama listens to. Given the sad fact that no anti-imperialists need apply, old-fashioned realists are the next best thing going, and beat the hell out of liberal hawks like Holbrooke as far as I'm concerned.
December 2, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm wondering how Napolitano will feel about enforcing the "Real ID Act" since she basically outlawed its enforcement in AZ...
December 2, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Objection. Non-responsive. I like napolitano as well and think that she is a great nominee. She will abide by obama's policy decisions and enforce them to the best of her ability. First thing I hope they change the name of the department and then move on from there. What do you think about the ones I identified oh ruby-red republican?
December 2, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hanging on to Gates was smart (no matter how many liberals whine about it making Dems look weak on national security). Scowcroft's ok you do realize he's a Mormon right (that seemed to be a big deal to you guys when discussing Romney)?
December 2, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh on scowcroft? Why would dems care about that? Reid is a mormon as well. If I recall, the mormon issue was an issue with the religious right, not dems. Hello.
December 2, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Y'all were the only ones I ever saw mention it...usually it was in the context that you didn't think the religious right approved, but this is the only place I ever saw Romney's Mormonism discussed.
December 2, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure...I guess that's why he gave his big "religous freedom" speech....he must've been scared by what all of us liberals were saying.
December 2, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
...did you make it to the polls yet? How's turn out? I early voted last week and it took 5 minutes as opposed to 3.5 hours in November.
December 2, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh oh, I just saw news video of huge lines at the polls and they didn't appear to be republican types voting. They were by and large minority groups and young people. Not alot of gray heads. Look out, maybe the draft dodger might not win reelection in ruby-red georgia. Would that be a hoot?
December 2, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
We went around 10:30 this morning. No wait, but the machines were full. The poll worker said that it had been pretty steady all morning.
December 2, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, I'm thinking Chambliss by at least 8 points. I hope that bum knee of his can handle six more years of golf. ;)
December 2, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh brother. That's silly. The right-wing media was all over it, including your favorite station fox entertainment. It was only mentioned as far as I recall in response to that.
Incidentally, Gates was just giving a presser and he is totally on board with obama's policies. Great presser. I really like gates and he will be a great secretary of defense now. Incidentally, he confirmed that he is staying for a while, not a year limit, for the puposes of helping withdraw from iraq, refocus on afghanistan, and get pentagon spending under control. He sounds more like a dem than many dems. Awesome pick by obama.
December 2, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
"... and he will be a great secretary of defense now." Because he sucked so bad as Sec Def before...lol
December 2, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point, he was great before as well in keeping us out of any more wars and trying to reign in the neocons. Unfortunately, he was implementing bad policies.
December 2, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. That's why Romney gave a speech about his Mormon religion during the primary--to satisfy the liberal democrats at TPM and Daily Kos.
That's why Bob Jones said he's support Romney but he'd better not try to pass himself off as a Christian.
You betcha!
December 2, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I don't get the Bob Jones News Letter so I'm not up on his personal feelings.
December 2, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tsk, tsk. I guess you are not a loyal ruby-red republican after all.
December 2, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you don't get the Bob Jones newsletter, how do you know that the nutjobs weren't freaking out because Mittens is a mormon?
December 2, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
CLARKE! Brilliant!
Outstanding Irishman. Scares the crap out of everyone too, even better!
Not a red-head - but he'll work just fine!
December 2, 2008 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read somewhere or other that Steinberg is a good manager, and given how Sen. Clinton ran her campaign it would make some sense if this is the case.
I wonder if Holbrooke tapped for special envoy to an area where his hard-edged mentality might be seen as a necessity. I wonder if he'll be Hillary's "bad cop".
Biden and Holbrooke come from the same school when it comes to Foreign Policy as well.
Didn't Obama's AIPAC speech have a pretty big misstatement in it?
December 2, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I read the same thing. And if there's one thing Clinton is going to need, it's a good manager.
December 2, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
"given how Sen. Clinton ran her campaign it would make some sense if this is the case" - and how exactly was that? She won in Ohio, Texas, Indiana and Pennsylvania in the last months. Is this another sign of Obama superiority and better organization, that he knows how to lose well?
Hillary made some mistakes, especially in December and January. That certainly doesn't mean she ran a bad campaign or needs a walker and Depends to get through State management. Look at what a crap primary campaign Joe Biden ran. Are you worried how he's going to handle his VP duties?
December 2, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh come on. She ran a terrible campaign. She had no message and kept changing the message. She ignored the caucus states. She wasted all of her money leading up to even before Super Tuesday. She didn't even have enough money to compete in most super tuesday states. She had no plan for after super tuesday and she lost in February. Yet, she kept on wasting money and attacking the dem nominee for months after. By the way, she lost the battle for texas delegates. Her wins after february were meaningless by and large as she had lost it already.
She was the front runner and had everything going for her, huge money advantage, establishment backing, and name recognition and she lost.
No one is saying that she needs depends and a walker. Frankly, she has not evidenced ability as a manager. Is that a crime? or a horrible dig? No of course not, it's just the facts.
December 2, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Frankly, she has not evidenced ability as a manager."
I don't know, she whipped that White House travel office into shape as soon as she got there...
December 2, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
She also had a terrible strategy and no plan for post-Super Tuesday. Winning OH, PA and Texas were great, but she lost more than half of the contest, including 12 in a row where she didn't have the foresight or resources to compete.
It's not her strength, of which she has many. No one is perfect. And in this case, it's better to deal with reality than to pretend otherwise.
December 2, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Biden ran a crap primary campaign? And you know this how? Because the media reported on all the infighting and backstabbing and going bankrupt and squandering his frontrunner status?
Get real. Biden's campaign wasn't taken seriously enough to merit any scruity so you have no idea how well or poorly it was run. We do know that Hillary's was a disaster.
December 2, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that your best argument. She ran out of money by super tuesday, she ended up with 30 million bucks worth of debt and had to loan HER OWN MONEY to the campaign 3 TIMES!
December 2, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Something about the holy land. He had to immediately walk that one back.
December 2, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
How many authors of the AIPAC speech were there? So far, I've seen Dennis Ross, Daniel Kurtzer, Dan Shapiro and Steinberg credited for helping to craft it. Who wants to take responsibility for the Jerusalem booboo?
BTW, Steve Rosen, indicted AIPAC co-conspirator has a helpful blog post pointing to a slew of appointments to watch for:
"Senior Director for the Near East at the NSC
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
Directors for the Near East at the NSC
Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs
"Special Mideast Peace coordinator" or "Middle East Special Envoy"
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for ISA, Near East
Deputy Assistant Secretaries in State Department Near East Bureau"
http://www.meforum.org/blog/obama-mideast-monitor/2008/11/key-12-remaining-positions-to-watch.html#continued
Thanks, Steve.
Now we know which under-the-radar slots are considered important to you Israel Firster types.
December 2, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmmmmmmm.
Steve Rosen also gives us a possible slot for the odious Dennis Ross, Hillary's Undersecretary for Political Affairs. Some hoped that Ross would be named as Ambassador to Israel which requires Senate confirmation.
If Bush doesn't pardon convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, I suppose there could be a miniscule chance that some Senator could grow a pair and ask Dennis why he favors pardoning Pollard and whether or not he would use his position to pressure Obama to do so.
December 2, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean Obama is actually calling the shots here? Shocking!
December 2, 2008 3:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
It will be even more shocking to Clinton-obsessives when they figure out that the differences in views between Obama and Clinton were always way overblown...
Speaking of Obama calling the shots, I think many people also still don't get that keeping Gates on isn't some kind of ideological compromise on Obama's part; Gates is very much a Bush I realist type whose views are, at most, no more different from Obama's own than Clinton's are. (Not a bad thing in my estimation, as I noted above re Scowcroft.)
December 2, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd sure like to see Eric Shinseki's name come up. Remember the guy who was fired because he was right about invading Iraq with too few troops? His forward-looking ideas were consistent with what Gates seems to be talking about -- i.e. ability to fight small and smart.
December 2, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey! Here's an idea.
How about one g**damn decision being made where AIPAC is not involved.
How about a big red-headed Irishman, for a change. the Irish of America demand equal consideration. ****Israel - they've had their hand in the pot for decades. And it's our fu**ing pot in the first place.
We're mean mother fu**ers and take no sh** from anyone, Israeli or Palestinian, and don't need DPD or cluster bombs to defeat a handful of sandal wearin' goat mild drinkin' skinny folke.
Ní thuigeann an sách an seang.
(The well-fed does not understand the lean.)
December 2, 2008 7:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Holbrooke to be SE Asia Special Envoy?
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/12/02/holbrooke_under_consideration.html
December 2, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean South Asia. I like mr. bill better for that position. I'm not sure if holbrooke's style will work in South Asia. Mr. bill also brings the weight of a former president being involved.
December 2, 2008 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink