If this Associated Press release is to be believed, the nomination of Hillary Clinton to head up the State Department is all but a done deal.
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state after Thanksgiving, a new milestone for the former first lady and a convergence of two political forces who fought hard for the presidency.
One week after the former primary rivals met secretly to discuss the idea of Clinton becoming the nation’s top diplomat, an Obama adviser said Thursday that the two sides were moving quickly toward making it a reality, barring any unforeseen problems.
So what’s the good news here? It’s simple, really. For those of us here in the Empire State, it means we may finally have a chance to put an actual New Yorker in our junior Senate seat once again. It also means that Hillary Clinton can stop pretending as if she knows or cares about New York beyond its usefulness as a stepping stone to higher ambitions. I worked for the Rick Lazio campaign in 2000 as we watched the DNC march in like well-funded stormtroopers and pull off one of the most flagrant cases of carpetbagging seen since the reconstruction era.
Since that time we have seen Senator Clinton fail to follow through on the majority of the glowing promises she made in her two campaigns. (We’re still waiting, by the way, for those 200,000 jobs for Upstate she promised would appear under her leadership and influence which actually turned out to be a loss of 145,000 jobs.) She has been a lackluster member of the upper chamber at best, authoring a relatively small amount of legislation and mostly making news simply because everyone was waiting for her run at the White House. Assuming she does take the job at the State Department, she can pack up her things and move permanently to Washington, where she will no doubt inform us that she’s been a fan of the Washington Nationals since she was a little girl.
I don’t know who we’ll get to replace her, frankly. I doubt America’s Mayor wants the job, though he may be the next Governor. Aside from Rudy, I doubt any other members of the GOP would have a shot so we’ll get another Democrat. But, with any luck, at least they’ll be from New York. So long, Mrs. Clinton. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But it sure as heck ain’t been real fun. Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord intended ya to sit.