Bending the rules for Hillary Clinton
December 3, 2008 - 7:07am.
If President-elect Barack Obama wants Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed as his Secretary of State he may have to depend on Congress bending the rules to give her the job.
Interesting irony. The man who campaigned on honesty and openness in government may need a backroom deal from the good old boys on the Hill to complete his cabinet selections.
Seems Clinton's appointment runs afoul of the law because the salary for her new job went up during her time in the Senate. The rules say a member of Congress can't take a cabinet position if the pay went up while they were in office making laws that affect things like salary hikes for Presidential appointments.
So Senate leader Harry Reid is scrambling to come up with a solution to fix the problem. One solution is to simply lower the salary for Secetary of State back to what it was before the last salary hike. Since Clinton is a multi-millionaire, she doesn't need the money.
Senate Democrats were working Tuesday to put together legislation making it possible for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to become secretary of state despite a constitutional clause that some critics argue should bar her from joining the cabinet.
The issue may seem esoteric but it generated attention Tuesday among legal scholars and bloggers arguing over whether it would be unconstitutional for Mrs. Clinton to serve as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state because the salary for her new office was increased while she served in the Senate.
Judicial Watch, a watchdog group that made a name for itself investigating the Clinton administration in the 1990s, raised the matter Tuesday with a statement asserting that Mrs. Clinton was ineligible to become secretary of state because of the so-called “Emoluments Clause” of the Constitution. By the end of the day, Senator Harry M. Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, was consulting with Republican colleagues in hopes of putting together a bill to address the issue.
The issue stems from Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution, which says: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time.” Emoluments refers to compensation.
After Mrs. Clinton’s last Senate election in 2006, the salary for secretary of state and other cabinet positions was increased to $191,300 from $186,600. In the past, Congress has gotten around this by passing a resolution cutting the salary for the office at stake back to what it was before the nominee’s most recent election.
Technorati Tags: - Login or register to post comments
- Printer friendly version
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Can't un-ring the bell, or
Can't un-ring the bell, or pretend she never voted. The fact is she voted to raise the pay of a job she is now assuming. Plain & simple.
But Oblahblah, like any typical party tool, will get together with his DC Mafia cronies and engineer a deal with the party shadowy overlords to dribble more urine on the Constitution, next to Bushs skid marks. DC business as usual.
Ernesto Ramos PhD: The US
Ernesto Ramos PhD:
The US Constitution is exactly what each and every office-holder swears he or she will uphold. Thus Hillary Clinton, like it or not, is INELIGIBLE to trash up the Cabinet with her presence. She took the queenship in the Senate to run for POTUS, thet failing...she must take her "lumps". The Senate has few remaining "lumps" as it is. To disrespect the U.S. Constitution will send an "anything goes" message that Obama will do as he pleases as he already has evading Constitutional requirement that Obama be a natural born-US citizen not a Kenyan or an Indonesian.
The original Bush cabinet
The original Bush cabinet included two Senators, John Ashcroft and Spencer Abrahams. Both had just lost elections.
Daddy's cabinet included Representatives Cheyney, Lujan, and Kemp.
Reagan seated Senator Schweiker.
Obama promised bi-partisanship; he's showing that he can behave like a Republican.
A footnote in the interest
A footnote in the interest of historical accuracy:
Schweiker's term in the Senate ended January 3, 1981. His nomination as Secretary of HHS could not have become effective before January 20, 1981, the day Reagan took office. Thus there would have been no offense against the clause in the Constitution cited above, which refers to sitting Congressmen and Senators
Ernesto Ramos PhD: Dear 33
Ernesto Ramos PhD:
Dear 33 street...when a Senator loses an election, EVEN TO A DEAD MAN, he is eligible for any appointment the US Constitution says he or she can have.
However, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a standing-holding office Senator who voted for her very own raise like the rest of what Obama describes as "no-good punks" (See Al Smith Dinner transcript).is. To disrespect the U.S. Constitution will send an "anything goes" message that Obama will do as he pleases as he already has evading Constitutional requirement that Obama be a natural born-US citizen not a Kenyan or an Indonesian.
The smartest thing Obama can do right now is present his birth certificate UNLESS he is afraid that his being a Kenyan or Indonesian citizen will make him ineligible for the Whitehouse.
This is not going away by itself. Obama has to have the guts to show he's eligible or remain another weasely lawyer scofflaw who expects others to observe the rules while he does as he pleases. "Doing as he pleases" is an accusation lampooned into Bush for 8 long years and stoically tolerated without vitriol while "turning the other cheek".
Changing the rules is not
Changing the rules is not the same thing as bending the rules. Something done in light of day is not a backroom deal.
"In the past, Congress has gotten around this by passing a resolution cutting the salary for the office at stake back to what it was before the nominee’s most recent election."
Seems pretty much a non-issue to me.