Clinton Moves To Expand Role Of State Dept Into Economic Affairs

[babylonsister]

Clinton Moves to Widen Role of State Dept.

By MARK LANDLER and HELENE COOPER
Published: December 22, 2008


WASHINGTON — Even before taking office, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking to build a more powerful State Department, with a bigger budget, high-profile special envoys to trouble spots and an expanded role in dealing with global economic issues at a time of crisis.

Mrs. Clinton is recruiting Jacob J. Lew, the budget director under President Bill Clinton, as one of two deputies, according to people close to the Obama transition team. Mr. Lew’s focus, they said, will be on increasing the share of financing that goes to the diplomatic corps. He and James B. Steinberg, a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, are to be Mrs. Clinton’s chief lieutenants.

Nominations of deputy secretaries, like Mrs. Clinton’s, would be subject to confirmation by the Senate.

The incoming administration is also likely to name several envoys, officials said, reviving a practice of the Clinton administration, when Richard C. Holbrooke, Dennis Ross and other diplomats played a central role in mediating disputes in the Balkans and the Middle East.

As Mrs. Clinton puts together her senior team, officials said, she is also trying to carve out a bigger role for the State Department in economic affairs, where the Treasury has dominated during the Bush years. She has sought advice from Laura D’Andrea Tyson, an economist who headed Mr. Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/politics/23diplo.html?hp

[elleng]

1. posted elsewhere

.

[ErinBerin84]

6. well, I looked for it and didn't see it here....

so I appreciate the posting.

[elleng]

7. Happens all the time!

.

[pecwae]

2. OMG! She's gonna take over!

[mmonk]

3. Ugh. Let's clean it up first.

It's probably the most corrupt Department in government.

[elleng]

8. I don't think so;

that may be Interior.

[mmonk]

10. That too

but interior isn't likely to get people killed as fast. I'm tired of think tanks and "trade" organizations full of defense contactors and ex government employees directing a foreign policy of bloodshed for money and having it's own agenda.

[madrchsod]

4. she setting up her own state foreign trade dept?

two cabinet level agencies dealing with foreign trade and economics would be a nightmare.

[mmonk]

5. It has a neo-liberal tint to it.

[elleng]

9. What the h

does THAT mean?

[mmonk]

11. Related to my post 10.

(And the Progressive Policy Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations).

[elleng]

12. My question is

What does 'neo-liberal' mean?

[mmonk]

13. Third way as opposed to the Republican neoconservatives.

Similar foreign policy but couched better in terms of noble cause.

[madrchsod]

14. tint? the whole paint can..

yes it`s neo liberalism...but that`s the clintons.

[mmonk]

16. Tint was my polite term for paint bucket.

;)

[The2ndWheel]

15. "played a central role in mediating disputes in the Balkans and the Middle East."

So bombs and economic sanctions that never touch the dictators?

[mmonk]

17. Mediation is beginning to take on different meanings.