The American Spectator : From Senator to Lowly Secretary

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From Senator to Lowly Secretary

By The Prowler on 5.29.09 @ 6:08AM

Hillary Clinton and her State Department are out of the loop -- and incompetent.

Word coming recently that due to a series of diplomatic oversights, Queen Elizabeth was excluded from a planned U.S.-French commemoration of D-Day, despite her, as well as Britain's, role in the war and the D-Day campaign, has put renewed focus on the inner workings of the Obama State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

According to State Department sources, while the U.S. State Department was not part of the full planning for the D-Day commemoration, American staff involved did not raise the issue of the Queen's involvement with the French. "It was French planning," says one State Department employee. "We were advised; we made sure we would have the necessary people in place, including the President, that was all."

But some State insiders say that the department in previous administrations would have taken a greater hand in shaping the events, particularly those with great symbolic or patriotic significance for the United States. "That's not a priority with this crew," says another State Department employee. "But this isn't the first time these guys haven't connected the dots or done their research in advance of meetings and the like."

The most high-profile embarrassment for Clinton was when she provided Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift to mark their first meeting: a prop "reset" button. "I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: 'We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together,'" Clinton said, presenting Lavrov with the red button. What the foreign minister got, however, was a button that said "peregruzka," which in Russian means "overcharge."

In a more embarrassing moment for the Administration, the White House was seemingly unprepared for the diplomatic and ceremonial requirements of the visit of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. While the State Department was not the lead on the ceremonial portions of the meeting between Brown and Obama, the department was consulted and seemingly gave the White House inaccurate information for what was considered a standard meeting between two world leaders.

But there have been other gaffes, many of them private, say State Department employees. Clinton has often showed up for meetings seemingly unprepared or not fully briefed, misidentified officials, and at times seemed unsure of Obama Administration policies. Further, she and her senior staff have been cut out of personnel decisions, particularly on the selection of ambassadors, positions one would think the highest ranking foreign policy official in an administration would have a say in filling. "All them plum ambassadors slots were handled out of the White House," says another State Department official. "In part, this is due to the political nature of the positions and the payoffs for campaign support, but still, in previous administrations, it was State that often took the lead in vetting the nominees."

Early stories on Clinton's State Department highlighted the slow pace of hiring for her senior staff, but the current issues have little to do with that, say the State Department employees, who say there is a growing impression that Clinton is frustrated by her inability to be front and center on foreign policy, taking the back seat to Obama, and chafing at White House control over foreign affairs.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (62) | Leave a comment

NoToObama| 5.29.09 @ 6:15AM

Ahhh, tooooooo bad Hill. Not front and center anymore?

Hopefully next election she will fade into obscurity. Along with the boy prez.

drudge ette obama| 5.29.09 @ 6:40AM

I can sense the panic and heightened frustration of Hillary as she sees her legacy being negatively written. She has a tin ear, always has.... no style and dirty hair. This impression is provided from a nonLatina female attorney.

Dear god...Queen Elizabeth was there in the thick of it during WWII. Normandy was staged from England. DeGaul hid away in England there during Vichy rule. What morons are running the show here? Oh, I forgot. Obama and the glams in France.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.29.09 @ 6:41AM

When the blind lead the blind, can not a cliff be right ahead?

Kitty| 5.29.09 @ 6:44AM

Her Royal C is living up to her reputation.

...

Pointer| 5.29.09 @ 7:19AM

As much as I am very alarmed at the socialist direction President Obama is taking America, I have to say one thing about him: He's smart. He took his former number one rival, sank her in the '08 campaign, then sent her off to what was supposed to be a plush assignment as Sec of State. Now Miss Hillary has all the relevancy of a small town dog catcher. Her legacy and her political future are toast.

JP| 5.29.09 @ 7:23AM

In a wa y, I feel for Sec Clinton. And more importantly, I worry that the Obama Administration is relegating foreign policy totally to the political ends, and not national security. Bush41 pretty much did this with Treasury (made all important fiscal decision within the West Wing), and look where it ultimately got him. When crisis did hit, it took his administration nearly a year to get its act together, and then it was totally FUBAR.

It could be that Obama doesn't totally trust Hillary (can you blame him?). But then, why would he nominate a person in such an important position he couldn't trust. Oh, yes, that's right: politics. The one person who could still pose a threat to him politically if things go wrong is the same person he put in Foggy Bottom.

She could still be a problem, though. During Bush41's 2 terms, the State Dept acted more like an arm of the DNC than a subsidiary of the Executive. Leaks came out of Foggy Bottom almost daily. Hillary could do the same if she believes the Oval Office is working against her.

Melvin| 5.29.09 @ 7:24AM

drudge ette obamam ummm, the simple history facts that you just stated are no longer taught in the government run education system.
World War Two was started by Angry white males bent on world domination by any means, and I'm not talking about the Germans.

JJ JR| 5.29.09 @ 8:21AM

Y'all,

Drudge ette Obama gave me a real chuckle this AM. I needed that. A barrister with wit--how intoxicating.

Of course, you can't trust the judgement of a "white male who hasn't experienced the same richness of experiences" as a latina jurist who's got a problem with white guys doing well on civil service exams.

Robbins Mitchell| 5.29.09 @ 8:28AM

'Oversight' my Plantagenet ass....this was just as deliberate as the previous slights aimed at Her Majesty and the UK....so much for Rodham's vow to use "smart power...smart diplomacy" as she declared at her confirmation hearings in January....not that anyone really bought into that to begin with....why does it feel like the L'il Rascals are running things now?

Tim| 5.29.09 @ 8:38AM

It was really smart, no, brilliant, of President Obama to take his greatest rival and trap her like a bug in a jar. All this bungling also helps ensure that herself will have no credibility or gravitas when the succession struggle begins in 2014 or so.

What? He's put politics ahead of the country's needs? Pfft ,that patriotism stuff is sooo 80's.

Timothy L. Pennell| 5.29.09 @ 9:37AM

This can all be reconciled, in two minutes. The Queen should inform the White House that she has converted to Islam, and that she would like to be in France, for the D-Day Ceremony, so she can demand an apology, from the French, for the Crusades. Hussein'll probably stop, and pick her up, on the way over. Pathetic.

P. Aaron| 5.29.09 @ 10:01AM

Obama ain't smart, he's just momentarily devious...but long term a disaster.

Son Of Sam| 5.29.09 @ 10:26AM

I agree wholeheartedly with you Aaron: Obama is not so much bright as he is unscrupulous. I predict that it will come back to bite him, though: if Hillary concludes that her future prospects are zero, she has NOTHING to lose by attacking the TelePrompter in Chief in the sneaky insidious way she and her hubby are so infamous for. She knows most of the people working for Obama, since they worked in the Clinton White House. I believe that she will wait until Obama is weakened by some serious domestic or foreign policy crisis, then strike below the waterline.

She won't be alone either: if the Democrats were really as tightly unified as they would like us to think, you wouldn't be seeing Reid, Pelosi, Dodd etc etc in so much hot water. I know a lot of people who usually vote Democrat who either didn't this past November, or who swear they will never vote for Obama again.

And let's remember, conservatives survived LBJ, Carter and Clinton, just as America has survived all those "unstoppable" enemies of freedom from the British empire to the slaveholders to Hitler, Tojo, the "evil empire" and Osama Bin Laden.

stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.samadamssos.bravehost.com

Michael L. Hauschild| 5.29.09 @ 10:27AM

Want to make the US energy sufficient? Tap into heat generated by the brain burn and boxer or briefs chafing of the “first black president”, as he contemplates watching the bamboozling of his significant other in the primary campaign, her displacement as the spokesman for the democrats, and relegation to the whipping “person” for Obama’s foreign (lack of) policy. This will have to play out till 2010 but in the meantime watching the Clintons will at least provide some amusement.
I have a suspicion that one of the casualties in the impending unemployment debacle will come from the uppermost ranks of the State Department.

John G.| 5.29.09 @ 10:31AM

Tim is on the right track.

It's not so much that Obama is a liberal ideologue. He's a bit more pragmatic than that. He's more about power, which is why we're seeing more and more that all the minutae decisions of running the government is coming from the White House, as alluded to in this post.

Obama's "success" depends in large part on the Obama "image". That's where the styrofoam columns, the Berlin speech, the stupid "Office of the President-elect" symbols, etc, come in. It's all fluff.

Regarding Hillary, her appointment as SoS was pure politics. It keeps her out of his hair in the Senate, he can claim credit for grabbing the Holy Grail of left-wing government entitlements (national health care, which was Hillary's trophy issue) and essentially neutralizes her.

That being said, it won't necessarily work. Hillary has yet to shut down her PAC from what I remember, which means she can still use it to solicit donations for a future run for office. And this could backfire for Obama, because Hillary, like the President, is about power. She wants to be president. Heck, she only took the SoS job to bolster her foreign policy creds. And if what this post says is true, then a toothless State department won't make Hillary long for the job. She will get antsy and split, setting the way for her running for president again.

And she WILL run again. Mark my words.

james| 5.29.09 @ 10:45AM

Mitch McConnell is smart. So what? He's weak. Obama isn't smart but he's willing to punch you in the face. Those people always win out over "smart" people. Hillary is neither smart nor willing to throw a punch. She's Bill's wife. Period. She's about to slip beneath the waves and disappear.

Jack| 5.29.09 @ 10:48AM

Enough of these pictures of our Secretary of State looking like she is about to swallow a watermelon. Has the appearance of a high official ever been so ludicrous?

The Drums of the dead| 5.29.09 @ 11:01AM

America is now no more than an Israeli PROSTITUTE and ISRAEL the PIMP. The Pimp decides the WARS and foreign policies of America. The Pimp tells the PROSTITUTE where the business is. as for now it's in the Middle East.

As the Bible says, the rest of the world is looking at where they could sell their goods, and America the worlds Prostitute, can no longer afford it. They can't even afford to Prostitute themselves to Europe because they don't have the money to pay for their goods.

Foreign OIL, the reality is America can no longer afford foreign oil. Iran knows that Iraq knew that, China knows that, Europe knows that, the world knows that, and Obama is trying to tewll these idiots that slowely break it to them gentely, we can't afford foreign oil. We have no money to pay for it.
The Rothchilds Banking family says keep printing they can use their TAXES to pay for the last drop of their own blood. We will control the world Bank now we dont need these Goyms any more.

JeffT| 5.29.09 @ 11:14AM

What I love the most about Hillary is her CACKLE. She can erupt into that CACKLE at the drop of a hat and at the most inappropriate times. The escapade with the Somali pirates was apparently riotous to the former First Lady. She blurted out one of her best-ever CACKLES during the press conference. Pure joy! Keep her, just for the laughs.

John| 5.29.09 @ 11:14AM

Considering the growing problems with North Korea, Iran, etc., Hillary might find that being out of the loop isn't the worst thing in the world, if all those problems come crashing down on the White House and she hasn't been front-and-center enough on foreign policy to throw her under the bus.

(And as far as her being a possible future rival to Obama if things do fall apart, the report on Thursday that Bill Clinton is still seeking revenge against the Kennedys and Bill Richardson over their support for Obama in the '08 election also means that if some major foreign policy crisis comes up, we could see some backbiting spin out of the State Department against the administration that will make the Colin Powell-vs.-Dick Cheney stuff look like a love-fest in comparison. Barack has essentally neutralized Hillary by sticking her in State and ignoring her, but her high profile and still-surviving base would make firing her over unauthorized leaking and finger-pointing as dicey for Obama as firing Powell would have been for Bush.

S in Severn| 5.29.09 @ 11:20AM

We have second tier AMATEURS running the government, the inexperienced "grad-school" candidates that think:
"Well I got my two best friends forever, that, you know, stopped talking to talk to each other and now like, we're all BFFs again, think I should work for like you know the State Department, it's all about the cool travel and like being in foreign places like you know, New Mexico. And since I got my friends talking you know I can get anyone talking, like you know, two people that are like each other but don't see it. Like they hold grudges and that is so, you know, bad and I'll get them all together, yeah!"

Angelo| 5.29.09 @ 11:21AM

The Muslims have a saying..."keep your friends close...your enemies closer"...he is not a smart man...but he certainly is clever and devious...and he has really...by putting her in that position ..with no real power has completely emasculated her for any future political office.....She will either resign in a year....or be asked to leave the position...

Angelo| 5.29.09 @ 11:22AM

NavyBrat| 5.29.09 @ 11:32AM

"America is now no more than an Israeli PROSTITUTE and ISRAEL the PIMP. The Pimp decides the WARS and foreign policies of America. The Pimp tells the PROSTITUTE where the business is. as for now it's in the Middle East."

I see the liberal anti Semite trolls are out spewing their bile & venom today. And they're right on topic, as usual. It's so funny to read the abject fear & ignorance in the words of these people. Go hide, Jew haters. Those evil boogeymen are coming to get you!

As for Madame Dufarge Clinton, she'll have her moment. She's just knitting all of her ammo into her register right now. When the time's right, look for leaks galore coming from the State Dept. And they will ALL make the neophyte in office look bad. While Barack may know the Chicago Way, the Clintons know how to do it Dixie style. Which is to say, smile, be nice, be patient, & wait for your opportunity. Here's a quote that would best describe the Clinton political philosophy:

"To come to know your enemy, first you must become his friend, and once you have become his friend, all his defenses come down. Then you can choose the most fitting method for his demise."...Tokugawa Ieyasu

Sound about right?

NavyBrat| 5.29.09 @ 11:33AM

I agree. The cackle is PRICELESS!!!

joseph| 5.29.09 @ 12:07PM

The minute that Hillary was nominated for Secretary of State I told my wife that this was a badly thought out move for her as she would be relegated to the backwaters of American waters amd actually be humiliated by Obama's treatment. Additionally she would have no say in US Foreign Policy and for three reasons.
(1) Her appointment was purely political survival on the part of Obama and the Chicago thugs around him. Once she was on the Obama team then Hillary had to shut up and Obama would make sure she was irrelevant. Sure she can fly around on fancy planes and meet world leaders but this is as far as it goes and his main concern was to neuter her for 2012.
(2) Narcisstic Obama thinks everything centers around him. In spite of being an empty suit and incompetent manager he beleives in his supreme omnipotence. No little Hillary is going to tell him anything. He is so oblivious to her that he will be making decisions about certain countries even as Hillary is on the way to meet the leader of that country. When she gets off the plane she may or may not be told what America/Obama's policy is with regard to those relevant issues.
(3) Obama and the politically savvy chicago thugs around Obama will be making foreign policy decisions based upon political expediency and not on American imperatives and Hillary is completely out of that loop.

Poor Hillary and Bill made a huge mistake with this one. Unfortunately as usual they were motivated by greed. This was a way to continue to keep the linkages between Bill as a money making machine and his foreign contributors and also to possibly help pay down Hillary's campaign debt. Now she sees that whatever little respectability she has is being destroyed by her irrelevance and marginalization and humiliation.

In hindsight my wife now agrees that I was right (not Wright !!).

Freudor| 5.29.09 @ 12:08PM

NO one cackles like The Secretary of Cankles.

That's SOCOUS, Hilldog "Under Fire" Clintong.

C Hummel| 5.29.09 @ 12:16PM

The words "intelligent", "bright" or "smart" do not describe our new leader. Precise language does exist; shrewd, devious, cunning, wily, artful, and a slew of other words more accurately describe the wolf dressed up as a sheep.

Gill O'Teen| 5.29.09 @ 1:12PM

obumassiah did not overlook the only current head-of-state in the world who actually served in World War II. He was simply being considerate. He did not want to deprive the Queen of any of her precious time as then she might have to neglect her listening to his inspirational speeches which he so thoughtfully included with his gift iPod. ✝✡

Old Texican| 5.29.09 @ 1:31PM

Folks, let's get it out there...
Mr. Obama and crew are grabbing the reins of real power as fast as they can, all across the spectrum.

Thank God, they are not brilliant, invincible, Titans. They screw up badly and often...and the battle lines are drawn....very clearly.

ds80| 5.29.09 @ 2:05PM

The evidence keeps rolling in: Obama and his Administration are a bunch of school children:

In response to N.Korea's nuclear test, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose to respond by accepting an honorary degree from Yale University.

You know, Hillary "Cattle Futures" Clinton. Regretfully, Vince Foster was unavailable for comment.

Everly Waverly| 5.29.09 @ 2:18PM

This is what you get with incompetence, discharged exponentially beyond all recognition. Hillary has been promoted well beyond her competence level, hence the new term, "The Hillary Principle".

Obama is likewise beyond his level of competence. He thinks multiple pen bill signings are going to dazzle his supporters and create new ones. Obama must also think weekly trips on AF one is the true indicator of presidential acumen, but alas he's full of poo derived from the bowels of the heavy burden of "hubris", the man is a schmuck....

Wicked Dickie--Virginia| 5.29.09 @ 2:27PM

I could see this coming. Give her State and she resigns from the Senate. Render her impotent and assign a "minder" which he has done. Blame some big goof or series of goofs on her. (Remember, he does that all the time.) Ask "reluctantly" and with very public "anguish" for her resignation. Bingo, she's out in the cold, hopefully, forever. We're well rid of the Clintons at last. Let us pray.....

Howard| 5.29.09 @ 3:20PM

Hillary will bide her time. When and if she detects weakness from Obama she will strike. She has to be bitter that she had more primary votes than Obama, and if she didn't have a bunch of jerks running her campaign, she would be President and Obama would still be a junior senator.

TEXAS MALE| 5.29.09 @ 5:44PM

Let's see Obama's REAL birth certificate.

Not the "certificate of live birth" that Hawaii gives to people whose birth certificates cannot be verified just so they'll have one.

Obama was born in Kenya....I guarantee it!

Eliza| 5.29.09 @ 6:31PM

Obama's not smart--just devious. Netanyahu kicked his sorry ass at their last meeting. Now Bibi IS smart, and a real man! Obummer is a liberal she-male and every tinhorn dictator around the world knows it. Liberals are losers. My apologies to the Queen--she doesn't deserve this disgusting display of low 'community organizer' behavior.

Titus Oates| 5.29.09 @ 7:40PM

Let's see, the Speaker of the House goes to China to talk climate and the Sec State goes to Yale for a graduation speech.

If she really expected to be a player on the O team, she's even more naive than he is.

Richard Baker| 5.29.09 @ 8:21PM

If the Peter Principle speaks of rising to the level of your greatest incompetence, when was she at the level of her greatest competence?

Old Texican| 5.29.09 @ 8:34PM

Richard
"The Peter Principle" ...pardon the pun!

She rose to the "Peter failure" some years ago...enter Lowinski... I' apologize folks...it was just too good to pass up.

Veronica| 5.30.09 @ 1:31AM

I think all of the democrats are perfect examples of the Peter Principle. Unfortunately, their last level of competence was in kindergarten.

Stuart | 5.30.09 @ 2:30AM

So Hillary doesn't have too much sway when it comes to foreign affairs. What did she expect when she signed on with the Messiah's team?
She would have been better off staying in the Senate, bidding her time, allowing Obama to botch things and -- maybe- getting a chance in 2012. Now, I know presidents- except if McCain had won- run for a second term and Obama would have to mess up big time in order for Democrats to even mull the possibility of running someone else, but she certainly had no politically sound reason for taking this job. As for her true foreign policy beliefs-assuming they're though out- she had to know that Obama was appeasement bound(notwithstanding his committment to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan).

stmichrick| 5.30.09 @ 7:24AM

How long til "Man on the Street" types get the feeling this is Amateur Hour in the Executive Branch?

Tenn Slim| 5.30.09 @ 7:32AM

Cap and Soc discourse.
Cap: Hillary seems to have a problem. Running the State D. is not as simple as she opined. Of course, being invited to the OBNA Oval office once a year doesn't help either. FP is just not a State Function under the Left. The West Wing, State offices actually do the FP thing, Right Soc?
Soc: You DO get it!. The OBNA would not trust Hillary to run the mower for Michelles garden. Sorry, but the FP is run by Podesta, Soros, Obama and the Center for American Progress. Progessive Media also does leg work, as you know. Now, as to the gaffes, well, it takes a Village to run the FP, as Hillary always says.
Cap: I certainly hope you can get us out the coming fine mess you and yours are creating. NK, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Trade Treaties, all these are FP issues. Seems you need to get your act together SOON. Some of these folks are not rational...
end

Basil Plumley| 5.30.09 @ 11:20AM

In baseball terms, I think we will see a double switch sometime in the future; Hillary to VP and Biden to State.
After all, nobody messes with Joe.

If that switch occurs, Obama will looking for some food tasters. Hopefully, Murphy will volunteer.

One thing about this administration, is there anyone in this cabinet who inspires confidence?

mike| 5.30.09 @ 3:17PM

Dear NavyBrat, I would like to believe what you say about the coming Hillary v. Obama smackdown, but I think you have ignored one important element: the power of the press/MSM. They have already invested too much in promoting The One (the sudden switch in press coverage a month or so before Obama locked up the Dem nomination was one of the scariest things I've ever seen: suddenly there was no good news being reported about Hillary and no bad news about Obama) , and are also standing in line with their hats out hoping for tax breaks and other favors from the Feds. Obama would have to have a major disaster, such as a terrorist attack , occur on his watch for the press to turn on him. Until that occurs, Hillary is toothless. She has always needed press support to suceed.

Liza| 5.30.09 @ 3:58PM

Hillary is toothless? Don't think so after viewing the photo of her gaping maw on this blog. She looks crazier and crazier every day.

Patricia Helvenston| 5.30.09 @ 8:15PM

The contest between Obama and Hillary is Godzilla against King Kong - let the reader decide who is who. Both are crooks, utterly corrupt, power driven, con artists, liars, thieves, but she was born in the US and he wasn't. One of these days the truth of Obama's Kenyan birth will become indisputably proven.

Smitty| 5.30.09 @ 10:55PM

Patricia, you're smart and you take no prisoners--my kind of Conservative. Good must prevail. Stay strong.

Richard Baker| 5.31.09 @ 9:38AM

Patricia:
I can tell the liberals are worried about the Kenyan's Constitutional birth problems as they become lathered and frenzied when the subject is raised, whether in print or verbally. They know their boy isn't legit and it scares hell out of them. Agree with your analysis. He's not spending approximately, so far, $1 million to fight all efforts to reveal his true birth certificate located in Honolulu for nothing.

Brian Richard Allen| 5.31.09 @ 10:01AM

Pointer suggest's the sail-eared simpleton's nomination of the recidivist, treasonous, lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist, Missus Cli'ton to State suggests he's "smart."

Ignoring for the moment that the Cli'ton Crime Family still owns operates and controls thousands of stolen FBI files and that it's more likely she chose her "job" than did he, it just ain't so.

Like her heinous, the world's most dangerous dullard is thicker than two planks.

But, like her and like every other sh ... outhouse rat, is cunning.

Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles - Califobambicated 90028
And the Far Abroad

Daisy| 5.31.09 @ 1:43PM

"Sail-eared Simpleton." LOL!! Mr. Allen, you've got a way with words, and that's the understatement of the year.

Daisy| 5.31.09 @ 1:52PM

What about the Clinton National Security hard-drive missing from the Archives? It must have proof of Clinton's incompetent and negligent policies that led to 9/11. They're offering a reward for its return, I see. I wonder in whose pants it was secreted this time. Cunning doesn't begin to describe the Clintons' treachery.

Richard Baker| 5.31.09 @ 9:33PM

Daisy:
That's why Lenin referred to their kind as "useful idiots".

Yay| 6.1.09 @ 12:23AM

Richard Baker loves Lenin. Its so cute!

Yikes| 6.1.09 @ 12:30AM

Is he going to try to teabag him?

Kevin| 6.2.09 @ 5:23PM

Can Obama make any good selection? Here is a blogger who wrote of Hillary, and nothing has changed. http://theblacksphere.blogspot.com/2008/11/hillary-clinton-voice-of-america.html

FUNNY stuff!

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