NOTHING is being left to chance as Hillary Clinton awaits confirmation as secretary of state after losing the battle for the presidency that she once thought would be hers.

Clinton has been engaging in some private diplomacy of her own in one-to-one meetings with members of the Senate foreign relations committee to minimise potentially damaging rows when her confirmation hearing begins on Tuesday.

Republicans have promised to raise questions about the millions of dollars donated by Middle Eastern potentates to her husband Bill Clinton’s foundation, and about her clashes with Barack Obama during the Democratic primary campaign over his willingness to open talks without preconditions with adversaries such as Iran. At the time, she called his plans “frankly naïve”.

The Senate hearing will offer the first glimpse of the newly fused Obama-Clinton foreign affairs strategy. It is no coincidence that the appointment of Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke, two veteran peace negotiators, as special envoys to trouble spots in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan was leaked last week ahead of an official announcement.

This enables Clinton, 60, to say that special envoys, rather than Obama, will conduct any contentious preliminary negotiations.

If the hearing is about Hillary Clinton, it will be a “coronation”, said Terry Holt, a former senior adviser to the Republican National Committee. Clinton, who has yet to resign as Senator for New York, is part of the same members’ club as her questioners. “It is the 500lb gorilla in the room, Bill Clinton, who could be the real problem,” Holt predicted.

Bill Clinton’s list of donors to his library and global foundation is being trawled for improprieties but so far only one potential domestic scandal has been uncovered involving a gift of $100,000 by Robert Congel, an upstate New York developer.

Hillary Clinton later helped the donor to secure millions of dollars of government assistance for a shopping mall. Her spokesman insisted there was no connection.

One Republican said mournfully that the Republican senators on the committee would ask some token questions but Clinton would be able to swat them away.

“There are still a handful of Clinton-haters who may try to embarrass her over her husband’s ties, but Senator Clinton is respected on both sides of the aisle for her iron-butt hard work,” said William Galston, an expert on public policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Any diffusion of tension will come as a relief to the Obama team, which has been embarrassed by several own goals after getting off to a widely praised start in November.

Emboldened by their success in November’s elections, Democrats in Congress have been flexing their muscles over Obama’s plans for $300 billion tax cuts as part of his financial stimulus package.

“O-bummer” ran the headline in Politico magazine after Democratic senators such as Kent Conrad blasted the tax cuts as “misdirected”.

A nettled Obama challenged members of Congress to come up with their own ideas. “Just show me. If you can show me that something is going to work, I will welcome it,” he said. “What is not an option is for us to sit and engage in posturing or the standard partisan fights while the American people are out there struggling.”

In a rare act of cooperation between rival administrations, President George W Bush has offered to come to Obama’s rescue by asking Congress for a second tranche of $700 billion in bail-out money which he secured at the height of the financial crisis last autumn.

If Congress refuses, Bush may use his veto to override their decision, according to a report in yesterday’s Washington Post. So might Obama, if the row drags on beyond his inauguration.

“There have been discussions between the administration and transition about how to proceed should the president-elect determine that he wants to have those funds available on January 20,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s designated White House spokesman. “No final decisions have been made, but we want to be ready to act if needed.”

The president-elect was called “no-drama Obama” before the election, but there have been plenty of rows and scandals since, beginning with the Illinois governor Rod Blago-jevich’s attempt to sell Obama’s Senate seat.

Some of Obama’s errors have been unforced, from the bungled nomination of Bill Richard-son as commerce secretary – he was obliged to withdraw after disputed allegations involving a leading donor in his home state of New Mexico – to the frosty reception accorded to Obama’s choice of CIA director.

The selection of Leon Panetta, 70, a widely respected White House chief of staff under Clinton, for the post bruised some members’ egos after Obama failed to consult them over the appointment.

Obama has also come under fire for plans to appoint Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s celebrity televi-sion doctor, as surgeon-general. Democrat congressman John Conyers has circulated a letter to colleagues questioning whether Gupta has the “necessary experience or even the medical background to be in charge of some 6,000 physicians”.

In addition, Republicans are preparing to attack Eric Holder, Obama’s choice for attorney-general, who nodded through a controversial pardon for Marc Rich, a fugitive financier, when Bill Clinton left office.

Obama's line-up

Hillary Clinton, secretary of state

Should sail through her confirmation hearing if Bill keeps a low profile

Leon Panetta, CIA director

Obama had to apologise for not consulting top Democrats about choice

Sanjay Gupta, surgeon-general

CNN's television doctor offended fans of Michael Moore's film Sicko

Eric Holder, attorney-general

The weakest link in Obama's cabinet after helping to pardon Marc Rich, a fugitive financier

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