Bill Clinton is weighing in on the talk that Hillary could end up being appointed Secretary of State, giving her a strong but cautious endorsement.

Speaking yesterday to a business conference in Kuwait, Bill said that both Hillary and himself worked very hard to get Obama elected, but added that they didn't do it with any expectation of a job offer.

"But if she decided -- if he decided to ask her to do it, and they did it together, I think she'd be really great at being Secretary of State," Bill said. "But I have no Earthly idea what is gonna happen."

Bill is obviously walking a tightrope here, in that he wants to talk up Hillary's prospects but can't cross the line into making outright demands that would decrease her chances. And top of that, his own presence is an issue, with the Obama transition team vetting his own dealings with foreign business and governments in order to determine whether there would be any conflicts of interest.

Hillary, at a transit industry conference in New York, just addressed all the chatter and speculation about Obama's supposed consideration of her as Secretary of State and her reported meeting with Obama in Chicago yesterday. She conspicuously didn't deny any of it.

CNN cut in to televise her remarks. Here's the key part of what she said:

"I have to start by saying I'm very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit -- especially guesses about my own. But on the off chance that you're not here for this important issue, and are here for some other reason, let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration.

"And I'm going to respect his process, and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team..."

No talk about how happy she is right now in the Senate, etc., etc., so you have to assume discussions of some kind of Obama administration role for her are active. One caveat: CNN quotes sources saying she was "surprised" at the rumors about the Secretary of State post.

Politico has a good rundown of all the Clintonites that have been invited into Obama's government, and what it all means. Money quote:

"Obama is showing great good sense in making use of their experience," said William Galston, a former Clinton domestic policy adviser who's now at the Brookings Institution. "You have an entire cadre of people in their 30s and 40s and early 50s who were either in senior jobs or second- and third-tier jobs in the Clinton administration, who really earned their spurs and know their way around -- and know something about how the institutions in which they served actually function."

The piece notes: "Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration."

Relatedly, I wanted to revisit a point made here yesterday that made some of you mad. It wasn't really meant to be about Obama but about the experience of this cadre of government professionals "in their 30s and 40s and early 50s" described above.

These are people who are taking charge again in a city that is vastly, vastly different than it was the last time they held power. In the 1990s these then-younger players were heavily constrained by Clinton's less-than-50% win, the ascendancy of conservative ideas, the eventual takeover of Congress by the GOP, and a media where power was much more concentrated in the hands of big news orgs and star columnists and pundit types. The result: Triangulation, cautious governance, achievements with a centrist gloss, and pitched battles with a press corps hell-bent on inflicting daily damage.

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As expected, former Al Gore chief of staff Ron Klain has accepted the opportunity to return in the same capacity for Joe Biden, a Democratic official confirms to us.

Klain is the second former Clintonite (after Rahm Emanuel) to take a high-profile and influential White House post, another sign that Obama is tapping experienced D.C. hands to implement his change agenda.

Ben Smith makes a smart point about Klain, arguing that for all of Obama's change rhetoric, he's long been the "toast of Washington" and is close to many D.C. insiders. His promises of "change" apply more to policy than personnel, and we've already seen that Obama is making substantive changes as he prepares to govern, placing his own reformist stamp on the transition process in various ways.

There are a couple of corollary points to be made here. First, Obama is a hard-headed realist about how to implement the sometimes airy-sounding promise of "change." The bottom line is that in order to get it done you need people who know how to do the hand-dirtying and not particularly noble work of behind-the-scenes politics.

Second, one emerging -- and very interesting -- storyline here is that many figures from the Clinton world are re-entering power at a time of real Democratic ascendancy and promise, what with the large Dem majorities in Congress. This contrasts sharply with the Clintonites' experience of D.C. in the 1990s. They were heavily constrained by ascendant conservative ideas, as well as the subsequent take-over of Congress by the GOP, and as a result, some of the biggest Clinton accomplishments had a heavy centrist gloss to them.

That isn't even remotely the case now: These people are coming back to D.C. at a time when the Republicans are catastrophically weakened, conservative ideas have been broadly discredited, and polls show wide public support for liberal governance. The opportunity to prove the virtues of one-party Dem rule and of liberal ideas in general, and to build an enduring Dem majority, are extremely ripe, and the excitement among these old D.C. players is palpable.

After a day or so of "agonizing" over whether to take the job, Rahm Emanuel has accepted the job of Obama's chief of staff, a Democratic aide confirms to us.

The move is an interesting one for a variety of reasons: Emanuel comes out of the Clinton world. He's a longtime D.C. insider joining the administration of a new outsider who is vowing to change Washington.

And he's a bit of a partisan warrior who can bang heads together behind the scenes to implement Obama's agenda while Obama sounds conciliatory, consensus-building tones in public.

It's Obama's first major public appointment.

Late Update: Given my rant below, I should have clarified that we're trying to get official comment from the Obama camp but none is forthcoming yet.

Late Late Update: A couple of other thoughts about the Rahm pick. It's a bit odd, because Rahm is a drama queen -- witness his very public "agonizing" about whether to take the gig -- something that's definitely at odds with what Obama expects from his top people. The choice of Rahm, though, also suggests that Obama is prepared to play rough with Congress when necessary.

From Politico...

Robert Gibbs, a top aide to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on his campaign and in his Senate office, will named the White House press secretary, a top Democratic official said.

Gibbs was usually the senior official on Air Obama, the campaign plane. As communications director of Obama's Senate office, Gibbs was a key strategist on Obama's rapid move to the national stage.

The announcement, to be made shortly, is likely to be viewed favorably by reports because Gibbs has unquestioned authority, access and institutional memory.

Gibbs has shown himself to be a brawler-with-a-smile on Obama's behalf, and he'll need one.

Late Update: A senior adviser to Obama says the Gibbs White House gig isn't a done deal yet.

Fox and MSNBC are reporting that Rahm Emanuel has accepted a job as Obama's White House chief of staff.

But an Emanuel spokesperson we just checked in with says that's not the case. No decision has been made, the spokesperson says.

It seems clear, however, that Emanuel is seriously considering the job. And Emanuel, an aggressive partisan warrior, is a choice that is likely to cheer people who don't want Obama to strike an overly conciliatory stance towards what's left of the Republican Party in Washington.

Meanwhile, Obama today announced his transition team, which will be overseen by John Podesta, a longtime D.C. insider who was chief of staff to Bill Clinton, Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago lawyer and long-time political adviser to Obama, and Obamaland insider Pete rouse, his Senate chief of staff.

Also assisting in the transition: William Daley, Governor Janet Napolitano, and Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice.

A list of Obama's day-to-day transition staff after the jump.

Late Update: John Harris and Jim VandeHei of Politico say that Obama's consideration of Rahm suggests that he's ready to press the Dems' partisan advantage in D.C.

Late Late Update: A number of you are arguing below that Rahm, far from likely to be confrontational towards the GOP, is more of a safe D.C. insider type choice. Separately, MSNBC is now backing off its report that he's joined the Obama administration.

Still Later Update: the Associated Press says the Rahm deal isn't done yet. Also, it's worth noting, as Steve Benen points out, that the chief of staff job could easily be less about ideology and more about execution, so it might be a mistake to conclude too much from the Rahm pick.

In other developments:

* John Kerry is denying reports that he's angling for the Secretary of State gig.

* Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly being considered for the head of Environmental Protection Agency, and he told HuffPo that he would take the job if it were offered.

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