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Free-Range Clinton?
Opinionator — “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,” report The Times’s Mark Landler and Helene Cooper. “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 ...

Hillary's State Department Changes: Two Comments
The Reality-Based Community — [image] Hillary's State Department Changes: Two Comments As Mark observes , it's a good thing that Hillary Clinton has appointed Jack Lew as budget director within the State Department. Two other things emerge from the NYT piece, one good, one bad: 1) Clinton seems to want to get State more involved in international economic affairs. This is good. Matt Yglesias is worried about this , suggesting that "letting the Treasury lead on this worked fine during the Clinton administration and insofar as it hasn’t worked under Bush it’s been because his Treasury Secretaries have been unimpressive and subcabinet jobs have often lingered vacant for long periods of ...