Clinton Named
Secretary of State

New York Senator, and former presidential contender Hillary Clinton has accepted the post of Secretary of State under the incoming Obama administration. President-elect Barack Obama made the announcement Monday morning, introducing the lineup of key cabinet appointees for foreign affairs and national security.

Obama cited Clinton's diplomatic ties as first lady in the 1990s as a strength, as well as her service in the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Transformation Advisory Group to the Joint Forces Command.

"Hillary's appointment is a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our alliances," he said at the press conference. "I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton is the right person to lead our State Department, and to work with me in tackling this ambitious foreign policy agenda."

Obama also tapped current Defense Secretary Robert Gates to keep his position. Gates was appointed in 2006 after Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down. Gates was the director of the CIA from 1991 to 1993, making him the only officer to rise from an entry-level job to director, according to a press release. Before taking the secretary position, Gates was president of Texas A&M University.

Eric Holder, a beltway attorney at Covington & Burling, and deputy attorney general under former president Bill Clinton, was chosen to serve as attorney general. Former President Ronald Regan appointed him in 1988 to be an associate superior court judge for the District of Columbia, and he was later appointed in 1993 as D.C.'s U.S. Attorney. Holder would be the nation's first African-American attorney general.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano was named to head the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano was her state's U.S. Attorney, and she led a statewide domestic terrorism investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing. She established the first state-level homeland security strategy in the nation and opened the first state counter-terrorism center, and helped write laws to break up human smuggling rings.

Dr. Susan Rice, who was Obama's senior foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign, will assume the post of United Nation Ambassador. During the Clinton administration she was the U.S. assistant secretary of state, and she served in the National Security Council.

Retired Marine Corps General Jim Jones will be Obama's National Security Advisor. Obama said that Jones "understands the connection between energy and national security, and has worked on the frontlines of global instability -- from Kosovo to northern Iraq to Afghanistan." As a silver star general, Jones encouraged NATO allies to include defending energy infrastructures as a part of international security.

Clinton's vetting for the position prompted her husband, former president Bill Clinton, to release the names of 208,000 donors for the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, which funds international initiatives on HIV/AIDS, climate change, the economy, and other issues. Bill Clinton would be asked to restrict his role at his foundation as well as his paid speechmaking. Lawyers for Obama and Bill Clinton examined the former president's finances, setting up guidelines for his future activities if his wife does take the job.

New York governor David Paterson would have to appoint a replacement for Hillary Clinton in the Senate. While Paterson has yet to name any possibilities, some speculate that state attorney general Andrew Cuomo, congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (whose father was once New York's senator), and others may have a shot at the job. Columbia University political science professor Sharyn O'Halloran told Fox News on Nov. 21 that another contender is New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay person to hold one of the city's highest ranking posts. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)