Probably the best argument against Hillary Clinton's appointment as secretary of state is that the staff she chooses for the State Department may not be progressive thinkers who advised Obama's campaign but rather old Clinton hands -- a decision that would rob the next generation of foreign policy professionals of a chance for advancement and present potential obstacles to installing Obama's vision within the bureaucracy. In yesterday's post about the new national security team and Hillary Clinton's place on it, I noted that the transition's agency review team has a number of good people on it. But it turns out that team will be short-lived:
Clinton is also expected this week to name her own agency review team to take over from the Obama transition team. Clinton's group will organize her briefings from State department officials, coordinate on imminent decisions and oversee the handover of power from Condoleezza Rice. Whoever runs that review will be well-positioned to assume top positions once Clinton takes over and will potentially indicate the ideological direction she may pursue at Foggy Bottom.
It will be worth watching to see how many names overlap on the two transition teams, and who gets tapped for the new one. Right now it looks like Wendy Sherman, who I don't know much about but who doesn't, at least in that Time piece, seem all that bad. The decision to appoint Clinton still seems to be fundamentally solid. Nonetheless, let trust but verify be our watchword.
UPDATE: Spencer has more info.
--Tim Fernholz
