On the November 18 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, amid reports that President-elect Barack Obama has decided to nominate Clinton Justice Department veteran Eric Holder to be attorney general, host Chris Matthews said, "This is what you do when you don't have elections. You simply promote the people ... who had the deputy jobs. You could do this in any bureaucratic state, you could do it in the old Soviet Union. ... You don't need elections for this crap." But in 2001, responding to then President-elect George W. Bush's selection to his cabinet of veterans of prior administrations, Matthews offered a very different assessment of such actions. Purporting to quote "an NBC driver" on the January 3, 2001, edition of Hardball, Matthews said the driver, a Vietnam veteran, is "like a lot of guys you meet," and said, "They want guys who've been around and survived." Matthews then said of then-President elect George W. Bush's Cabinet picks: "You've got it in this Cabinet. There's some real heavyweights in terms of experience."

At the time, Bush had nominated Donald Rumsfeld to be secretary of defense, the same position he held under President Ford, and Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush, to be secretary of state. He had also named Dick Cheney, defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, to be his running mate.

While Matthews raised the question of whether, in his Cabinet picks, Bush "risk[ed] being overwhelmed by their maturity and veteran status," he did not suggest that Bush was mimicking "the old Soviet Union" in selecting people who had served in previous administrations.

From the January 3, 2001, edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (retrieved from the Nexis news database):

MATTHEWS: Let's talk about this big fight over the Cabinet. First of all, it's -- the most impressive Cabinet appointment in the world right now is -- is Colin Powell, your friend.

BILL BENNETT (secretary of education under President Reagan): Well, obviously...

MATTHEWS: Clearly.

BENNETT: ... hailed worldwide and everyone in America loves him.

MATTHEWS: Probably the most impressive Cabinet appointment since Jefferson or whatever back in the early days of our republic. Do you think he might find his way into a vice-presidential nomination in four years?

BENNETT: Sure he can. And who knows what Cheney wants to do? He could have found his way into a presidential nomination. If you remember, some of us were encouraging...

MATTHEWS: But this will be the less -- this would be less dramatic. This would be a smooth transition.

BENNETT: Yeah, this would be an easy transition. Exactly right.

MATTHEWS: And he -- I've been thinking about this overnight. The Bush people have a tremendous ace in the hole. It's Colin Powell. He may run the next time. That ticket would be undefeatable.

BENNETT: Well, it's an ace in the hole for that. It's, also, an ace in the hole, I think, for some serious issue of foreign policy. If we need an appeal to the nation, the president makes it. Colin Powell can also speak and persuade a lot of people.

MATTHEWS: I had an NBC driver the other day, I was doing the TODAY show, and he said something really powerful to me, like a lot of guys you meet. You know what he said? He said people -- and he was in Vietnam for -- he said people like to be around veterans. They like to be with a guy who's been there 10 months. They don't want to be surrounded by raw recruits, and...

BENNETT: That's right.

MATTHEWS: ... and guys that -- you know, just guys who were brought in -- grunts, as they were called.

BENNETT: Right.

MATTHEWS: They want guys who've been around and survived. You've got it in this Cabinet. There's some real heavyweights in terms of experience.

BENNETT: Yeah.

MATTHEWS: Does your guy, the president elect, risk being overwhelmed by their maturity and veteran status? I mean, you've got Dick Cheney in the room. Don Rumsfeld, the former secretary of Defense. You've got Colin Powell, a world hero. And you're the least...

BENNETT: Right.

MATTHEWS: ... impressive guy in the room.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think so, but very strong. I -- you know, when I went to a university once, the president of the university told me if your department chairman -- there's only one test for a good department chairman -- hire people whose -- who are -- whose light will shine brighter than his, that's a secure guy. This is a very strong bunch of people. It's also -- and a lot of people are somewhat surprised -- a conservative Cabinet. I mean, it's...

MATTHEWS: Very.

BENNETT: ... diverse and all this, but this is a very strong, conservative Cabinet.

From the November 18 edition of Hardball:

MATTHEWS: But first tonight, as President-elect Obama assembles his governing team, some of the members of the new administration charged with change look awfully familiar. Joining me, MSNBC's political analyst Pat Buchanan and American Prospect editor and author of Obama's Challenge Robert Kuttner.

Pat, let's take a look at some of these faces. I mean, they are not the new kids on the block. Eric Holder tonight, for attorney general. Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. Joe Lieberman stays on as senator from Connecticut and prime member of the Democratic caucus. Look at this list. We've got Lieberman on, [John] Podesta [co-chairman of Obama's transition team], [Rahm] Emanuel [incoming White House chief of staff], Holder, Clinton -- the list goes on. I'm looking for the new face. Pat?

BUCHANAN: Well, we're in -- look, we're in retread city, is what's going on. This is the Nixon -- I mean, the Clinton alumni association showing up here.

MATTHEWS: No, you're a Nixon alumni association.

BUCHANAN: I'm Nixon alumni. But you know, but Eric Holder is, I mean, he's a very competent, able man, but the thing he's most famous for, as you mentioned, is a pardon -- Frank Rich's pardon, which he expedited on behalf of Bill Clinton. He was going to run for mayor of D.C. He's as local as you can get. I mean, I don't see anyone from outside, real change here. I mean, these people are undeniably competent, but this is what you'd expect if someone else had won.

MATTHEWS: This is what you do when you don't have elections. You simply promote the people -- Robert Kuttner -- who had the deputy jobs. You could do this in any bureaucratic state, you could do it in the old Soviet Union, do it anywhere you have a bureaucracy. You don't need to hold elections to promote deputies to the top job when it comes time, right? You don't need elections for this crap, do you? Robert?

KUTTNER: Well, I was disappointed --

MATTHEWS: You just keep promoting people from within in any old, tired bureaucracy. That's what you do. You don't think. It's very Republican thinking, Pat, by the way.

By the way, he didn't pardon Frank Rich of The New York Times; he pardoned Marc Rich.

BUCHANAN: It was Marc Rich.

MATTHEWS: I know you've got Frank on your mind. But, uh -- just kidding. We all make mistakes here.

On the November 14 and 17 editions of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews used reports that President-elect Barack Obama might nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state to "rehash" 1990s-era smears and scandals involving the Clintons. For instance, Matthews invoked Linda Tripp, who was a central figure in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and hosted Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), whom Matthews asked to discuss the false accusation -- previously advanced by Burton -- that White House aide Vince Foster was murdered. Matthews also hosted Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens, who has a history of smearing the Clintons, including asserting that by "welling up," Hillary Clinton looked "sort of alternately soppy and bitchy."

On the November 17 edition of Hardball, Matthews said, "Leading off tonight: When I first heard that the president-elect could pick Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, my impulse was trouble. The Clintons are drama. They have ambition and they also have a story to tell, and to be just by themselves. Why, I asked, does Obama -- who has the nickname 'No drama Obama' -- want to marry himself to drama?"

Burton was among the guests Matthews hosted to discuss the "varied consequences" of Obama's potentially nominating Clinton. Matthews began his interview with Burton by stating: "Congressman Burton, you're no fans of the Clinton. [sic] In fact, I think you think the Clintons had something to do with killing Vince Foster. What do you say?" After Burton declined to comment, Matthews repeatedly pressed him to "rehash" the topic. According to The Washington Post, Burton "was so convinced that Vincent Foster was murdered that he launched a private investigation and fired a gun in his back yard in an enactment of his theory that the White House aide was shot." Time magazine and Salon.com have published similar accounts of Burton's attempts to push the thoroughly refuted theory that Foster was murdered.

Later in the November 17 program, Matthews hosted Hitchens, who said of Clinton:

This is the woman whose foreign policy experience consists of making a fool of herself and fabricating a story about Bosnia. This is the woman who, with her husband, have so many connections -- fundraising connections overseas, Indonesia, China. Just look up the Senate report on their fundraising activities, the people they have pardoned, the amazing brothers of hers who nearly got the -- was it the nut monopoly in Kazakhstan or something farcical like that. Just look it up. It's a ludicrous embarrassment for the president and for the country.

During the conversation, Time's Peter Beinart said, "I really don't think most people, besides Chris, with all due respect, are really interested in rehashing all of the scandals of the 1990s," to which Matthews replied: "No, no. It's a question of whether they're all coming back, sir. That's the question. Rehashing or reliving is a bigger question. Do you want to relive them all?"

In addition to his "alternately soppy and bitchy" comment, Hitchens has previously compared the Clintons to zombies, vampires, and werewolves and has questioned Hillary Clinton's faith, falsely claiming that "[s]he has never particularly mentioned it before." On November 18, MSNBC repeatedly aired footage of Hitchens attacking Clinton the night before, including an MSNBC Live segment anchored by David Shuster.

After discussing Clinton's potential nomination at length during the November 14 edition of Hardball, Matthews said, "[H]ere's a blast from the past. Someone tracked down Linda Tripp -- remember her? She's the woman who outed Monica [Lewinsky] and her strange deal with a U.S. president -- to find out what Linda Tripp thinks about the new Democratic president. Tripp says, quote, 'Obama possesses an instantly recognizable purity of soul that brought quite unimaginable and long-awaited magic to the country, transforming red and blue states, quite literally, into the color purple.' Actually, I like what she had to say, especially her read on Obama's 'purity of soul.' "

As Media Matters for America noted, on November 14, Matthews also hosted MSNBC political analyst Michelle Bernard, who said that if Clinton becomes secretary of state, she will run a "parallel government," and Jennifer Donahue, political director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, who suggested Clinton would try to "create only one term for Barack Obama."

From the November 14 broadcast of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Anyway, next: here's a blast from the past. Someone tracked down Linda Tripp -- remember her? She's the woman who outed Monica [Lewinsky] and her strange deal with a U.S. president -- to find out what Linda Tripp thinks about the new Democratic president.

Tripp says, quote, "Obama possesses an instantly recognizable purity of soul that brought quite unimaginable and long-awaited magic to the country, transforming red and blue states, quite literally, into the color purple."

Actually, I like what she had to say, especially her read on Obama's "purity of soul."

Time for the "Big Number" tonight: Secretary of State or not, the Clinton connection certainly doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker. According to thePolitico, 31 of the 47 people named to transition jobs by Obama have ties to the Bill Clinton administration. The gang's all here, at least for the transition. Thirty-one Clinton associates have been called into at least temporary service by Team Obama -- tonight's "Big Number."

From the November 17 broadcast of Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews. Welcome to Hardball tonight from Los Angeles. Leading off tonight: When I first heard that the president-elect could pick Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, my impulse was trouble. The Clintons are drama. They have ambition and they also have a story to tell, and to be just by themselves. Why, I asked, does Obama -- who has the nickname "No drama Obama" -- want to marry himself to drama?

My second thought was that Hillary Clinton really did her best for the Obama effort, that she really did give an extraordinary speech in Denver, that her very soul seemed to be, at the end, for his actual election. Finally, I thought, Obama really does want to be Abraham Lincoln and assemble a team of rivals.

Last night on 60 Minutes, Barack Obama was asked if Hillary was on his short list for secretary of state.

OBAMA [video clip]: She is somebody who I've needed advice and counsel from. She is one of the most thoughtful public officials that we have. Beyond that, you're not getting anything out of me.

MATTHEWS: Not much of a clue there. Much more on the possible pick of Hillary Clinton for secretary of state and all its varied consequences, in a minute.

[...]

MATTHEWS: Congressman Burton, you're no fans of the Clinton. In fact, I think you think the Clintons had something to do with killing Vince Foster. What do you say?

REP. DAN BURTON (R-IN): Well, I'm not gonna go back and rehash that again, Chris.

MATTHEWS: Well, rehash it for a minute, sir. You do --

BURTON: No, no, no.

MATTHEWS: -- believe they had something to do with it.

BURTON: No, I'll be glad to answer questions from you about --

MATTHEWS: Well, it does give me a sense --

BURTON: -- how tough she is and --

MATTHEWS: -- of what you think of the Clintons, that you won't even say they're free of a murder charge. Won't you do that at least?

BURTON: Chris, I know you -- you want me to be controversial. Let me just say, she's a very talented woman.

BURTON: No, you're the controversy, sir. Let me ask you this: Do you believe the Clintons are innocent of any foul play with regard to the death of Vince Foster? Let's start from there and we'll move on to your bona fides in this topic.

BURTON: Chris, you heard what I said. I'm not gonna go back and cover that ground again.

MATTHEWS: OK. Well, we just did.

[...]

MATTHEWS: OK. OK. Congressman -- Congressman Burton, should Bill Clinton be allowed to take money in the world from any source while his wife's secretary of state?

BURTON: I don't think there's any rule that I know of that would prohibit him from giving speeches --

MATTHEWS: You just can't --

BURTON: -- around the world and --

MATTHEWS: -- you're -- this is entrapment. You guys, like [former Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger and [Sen.] Jon Kyl [R-AZ], can't wait for the Clintons to come aboard so they'll be pot shots. You'll be shooting at them like cantaloupes. They will be your target zone again. You can't wait, Congressman, to get them in the target zone, can you? Be honest.

BURTON: My -- our target zone will be --

MATTHEWS: You want them there.

BURTON: Our -- well, they were always entertaining. Let me just say this: Our target zone is lowering taxes and keeping spending down and getting the economy moving again. And as far as the Clintons concerned, if Barack Obama hires her to be his secretary of state, he's gonna have to deal with her, and we're going to have to deal with Barack Obama and his policies, Chris. He's going to --

MATTHEWS: What were you --

BURTON: -- be the boss.

MATTHEWS: What were you -- Congressman, what were you shooting in the backyard? Were they cantaloupes or pineapples? What were they, you were shooting? Is it something to do with the Vince Foster case?

BURTON: No, no. All right.

MATTHEWS: You were shooting at something.

BURTON: All right, Chris. I figured you'd want to go there again. I love you, man. I'm not gonna talk about that.

MATTHEWS: OK. Well, I just wonder whether you're shooting fish in a barrel here. You can't wait to get the Clintons in that -- look at you. You're laughing your butt off. You can't wait to get the Clintons in the target zone.

[...]

MATTHEWS: What do you make of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Mr. Hitchens?

HITCHENS: Look, this is the woman who played the race card on Barack Obama. This is the woman who, if you were for change that you can believe in -- whichever change it was -- you were voting against. This is the woman whose foreign policy experience consists of making a fool of herself and fabricating a story about Bosnia.

This is the woman who, with her husband, have so many connections -- fundraising connections overseas, Indonesia, China. Just look up the Senate report on their fundraising activities, the people they have pardoned, the amazing brothers of hers who nearly got the -- was it the nut monopoly in Kazakhstan or something farcical like that. Just look it up. It's a ludicrous embarrassment for the president and for the country. But it should even be discussed?

MATTHEWS: Well, why is he -- why is he -- look, we all know that Barack Obama's got a lot of candlepower. He's a smart guy. He's politically adept. He won the presidential election as the first African-American.

HITCHENS: Yeah.

MATTHEWS: He's gone over hurdles nobody thought anybody could do. And, yet, here he is with his biggest news story since his election. Everybody's buzzing about it. Why would he let this toothpaste out of the tube if he's not gonna do this thing?

HITCHENS: Well, he -- it's clear from what we've can glean that it's -- the job is hers if she wants it.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

HITCHENS: So it's Clinton re-do, not just Rahm Emanuel. Whatever this is, it's not change.

[...]

HITCHENS: We'd also like a full accounting from all the Chinese and Indonesian witnesses, who were fugitives from justice rather than testifying in the last Clinton fundraising hearings.

MATTHEWS: Well, Marc Rich is still a problem.

HITCHENS: We need to know -- we need to know what happened to that money now.

BEINART: I really don't think most people, besides Chris, with all due respect, are really interested in rehashing all of the scandals of the 1990s.

MATTHEWS: No, no. It's a question of whether they're all coming back, sir. That's the question. Rehashing or reliving is a bigger question. Do you want to relive them all?

HITCHENS: Yeah. And who owes who for what? We now need to know.

MATTHEWS: It's a good question.

From the 4 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on November 18:

SHUSTER: Julie [Menin, Women's Campaign Forum], I want to get your reaction in particular to something that Christopher Hitchens said on Hardball last Friday about Hillary Clinton. Watch.

HITCHENS [video clip]: This is the woman who played the race card on Barack Obama. This is the woman who, if you were for change that you can believe in -- whichever change it was -- you were voting against. This is the woman whose foreign policy experience consists of making a fool of herself and fabricating a story about Bosnia.

SHUSTER: He goes on to say that Hillary Clinton's appointment would be a "ludicrous embarrassment." Your reaction?

Media have continued to respond to reports that President-elect Barack Obama is considering naming Sen. Hillary Clinton secretary of state with the smear that she (or Bill Clinton) might pursue her own agenda as secretary of state and not Obama's. For instance, in a November 17 post on the Harper's blog Washington Babylon, Washington editor Ken Silverstein asserted that Sen. Clinton "[i]s not a team player" and claimed that "Obama may wake up one day and discover that Hillary has decreed a new 'Clinton Doctrine' of foreign policy."

Additionally, on the November 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker speculated that Bill Clinton "could be out there creating his own foreign policy on the side."

While Silverstein and Tucker suggested that naming Clinton secretary of state could create problems, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker suggested that one of the reasons Obama might make the nomination is because Clinton could potentially cause problems for him if she stayed in the Senate. On the November 17 edition of MSNBC Live, Parker said that "clearly, you know, there are other reasons for Obama to select" Clinton as secretary of state, adding: "[H]e gets her out of the Senate, gets her off of the continent."

Media Matters for America previously noted that several media figures similarly speculated that Clinton would pursue her own agenda as secretary of state and not Obama's, with at least one pundit speculating that she would attempt to set up a "parallel government" while others speculated that Obama is considering the nomination because if Clinton remains in the Senate, she poses a threat of challenging him for the nomination in 2012 and can "mak[e] trouble" for him in the Senate.

From the 1 p.m. ET hour of the November 17 edition of MSNBC Live:

ANDREA MITCHELL (host): One of the things that we saw with Teddy Kennedy's return to the Senate today is that Ted Kennedy is still in charge of health care in the Senate, another reason why Hillary Clinton doesn't have that much leverage in the Senate, not enough seniority, and why it might be very attractive to her to go to the State Department.

PARKER: Interesting timing, wasn't it? That --

MITCHELL: Very.

PARKER: -- Senator Kennedy shows up just as she's trying to decide this. Well, clearly, you know, there are other reasons for Obama to select her and to -- I mean, she -- he gets her out of the Senate, gets her off of the continent, and the benefit is that she and Bill might run in to each other every now and then. That was very catty of me, wasn't it?

MITCHELL: But that's why we love you. Thank you so much for being with us.

PARKER: Thanks, Andrea.

From the November 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Let's talk Lincoln history here, Team of Rivals. Let me go to Cynthia first. Team of Rivals. This man, the new president, our president-elect, is very Lincoln-esque. We've known that from the beginning. Does he really believe that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton can be in the tent, in other words, total Obama-ites? Really rooting for his historic success, and if so, how does he test that motive before making the final decision?

TUCKER: Well, certainly, he believes Senator Hillary Clinton can be in the tent.

Now, Hillary Clinton was never the Clinton that Obama had to worry about most. She has still a long political career in front of her, which can be very successful. She has everything to gain by cooperating with the Obama administration in whatever position in which he wishes for her to serve. Secretary of state would be a great plum appointment for her if indeed it has been offered.

But Bill Clinton is out there doing his own thing. His financial ties are a problem. He brings his own drama -- that's a problem. And for heaven's sake, he could be out there creating his own foreign policy on the side.

So, the difficulty for Obama is not Senator Hillary Clinton, and keeping her in the tent, but how do you get her in the tent and then keep the former president under control as well?

From Ken Silverstein's November 17 blog post, "Five Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Not Be Secretary of State," on his blog Washington Babylon:

It looks like Barack Obama has offered Hillary Clinton the post of Secretary of State and she's mulling over whether to take the job or not. Obama's apparent offer makes him look magnanimous and delights Hillary Clinton's former backers, so maybe it's smart politics. But there are a number of good reasons why Clinton should not be secretary of state. Here are five:

1. Hillary Clinton will have her own agenda (as will her husband). She's not a team player and will bring in a crew of cronies whose chief aim will be to promote the boss, not the administration. Obama may wake up one day and discover that Hillary has decreed a new "Clinton Doctrine" of foreign policy.

2. It would be impossible, politically, to fire Hillary. No matter what she says or does, or how insubordinate, Obama will be stuck with her as long as she wants to stay.

3. Her husband is a walking conflict of interest. Bill helps a Canadian businessman land a uranium contract in Kazakhstan, and soon afterwards the businessman contributes to the Clinton Foundation. Bill's personal and business dealings are embarrassing enough without Hillary heading the State Department.

4. The Clinton style of management-for example, pitting one faction of staff against another-would be a disaster at the State Department. Just look at how well it worked on the campaign trail.

5. And the strongest strike of all against Hillary as secretary of state... look at who endorses her.

In a November 17 New York Times article, Don Van Natta Jr. and Jo Becker reported that in considering whether to nominate Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, "[t]he Obama transition team is focused on the wide array of Mr. Clinton's postpresidential activities, some details of which have not been made public. This list includes the identity of most of the donors to his foundation, the source of some of his speaking fees -- he has earned as much as $425,000 for a one-hour speech -- and his work for the billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle." But Van Natta and Becker did not note that the source and amount of Bill Clinton's speaking fees are disclosed annually in Hillary Clinton's Senate disclosure forms -- including a $425,000 speech he delivered on August 14, 2007, for AEG London, which was listed in Hillary Clinton's 2008 Senate disclosure form.

Though Van Natta and Becker reported that "[s]everal Democrats close to the Clintons said the former president's activities should not be a disqualifier because the couple had been more open about their finances than past veterans of the White House, thanks to Senate disclosure requirements," they did not make clear that Bill Clinton is required to disclose all speaking fees of $200 or more, according to the disclosure form. Should Hillary Clinton remain in the Senate, Bill Clinton's 2008 speaking fees would be included in her 2009 Senate disclosure forms. Should Hillary Clinton become secretary of state, executive branch financial disclosure rules would require her, just as the Senate does, to disclose speaking fees earned by Bill Clinton of $200 or more.

The Times has previously noted that Bill Clinton's speaking fees are disclosed in Hillary Clinton's disclosure forms. A June 15, 2006, article reported: "Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had income of more than $8 million last year, mainly from speaking fees Mr. Clinton collected, according to disclosure forms released by the senator's office yesterday." The article also reported: "In the senator's disclosure on Tuesday, she and her husband reported having a joint bank account worth $5 million to $25 million, as well as a blind trust worth $5 million to $25 million. ... One major source of income was the speaking fees Mr. Clinton collected. The statement showed that he earned more than $7.5 million for 43 speeches that he gave to groups as varied as the Goldman Sachs Group, the Lancaster, Pa., Chamber of Commerce, the Young Presidents' Organization and Leading Minds in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates."

From Van Natta and Becker's November 17 article:

The Obama transition team is focused on the wide array of Mr. Clinton's postpresidential activities, some details of which have not been made public. This list includes the identity of most of the donors to his foundation, the source of some of his speaking fees -- he has earned as much as $425,000 for a one-hour speech -- and his work for the billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle.

[...]

Several Democrats close to the Clintons said the former president's activities should not be a disqualifier because the couple had been more open about their finances than past veterans of the White House, thanks to Senate disclosure requirements.

"They are arguably the most transparent former first couple in history," said one Democratic official, who declined to be identified because the talks are confidential. "For eight years, they've been doing this."

Lanny J. Davis, a longtime Clinton friend who said he was not speaking on the couple's behalf, said he "completely rejects 100 percent" any suggestion that there was a conflict between Mr. Clinton's work raising money for his foundation and the work Mrs. Clinton would be doing as the nation's chief diplomat.

When the Clintons released their postpresidency tax returns in April, the documents showed the couple had earned $109 million after leaving the White House in January 2001. Most of it has come from book-writing and speaking fees, a sum that accounts for nearly $92 million, including a $15 million advance from Mr. Clinton's best-selling autobiography, "My Life."

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Hillary could reject State offer  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton isn't certain she would accept the Secretary of State post even if Barack Obama offers it to her, several people close to the former first lady say.  —  Press reports that portray Clinton as willing to accept the job …

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Cabinet post for Clinton roils Obamaland  —  Barack Obama's serious flirtation with his one-time rival, Hillary Clinton, over the post of secretary of State has been welcomed by everyone from Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton as an effective, grand gesture by the president-elect.

New York Times:
Many Dealings of Bill Clinton Under Review  —  Over the weekend, former President Bill Clinton enthusiastically endorsed the prospect that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, might join the Obama administration as secretary of state.  “If he decided to ask her and they did it together …

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Hail Clinton  —  There appears to be little angst among conservatives at the prospect of Hillary Clinton joining the Obama administration as Secretary of State.  The idea was warmly embraced by Henry Kissinger, who our President-elect seems to hold in high-esteem, Governor Schwarzenegger …