Blog: is Obama eyeing McCain as energy secretary?

Lawyers for Barack Obama are examining Bill Clinton’s ties to foreign governments and his complex finances as they seek to clear the way for his wife to become secretary of state, aides disclosed yesterday.

Mr Obama’s investigative team, led by his chief vetter Christine Varney, are concerned about any conflicts of interest between the former President’s philanthropy and the duties that Hillary Clinton would undertake on the world stage as America’s top diplomat.

That Mr Clinton is undergoing a form of vetting shows that Mr Obama is serious about making Mrs Clinton his secretary of state, but also that her husband’s activities could complicate matters. Mr Obama met Mrs Clinton in Chicago on Thursday and aides on both sides say that the job of secretary of state was discussed.

The Obama team do not believe that Mr Clinton is a serious obstacle to appointing his wife. Yet if she were given the job she would face scrutiny over her husband’s connections with foreign governments – the same leaders that she would be dealing with on behalf of Mr Obama – and fresh calls for him to reveal the list of foreign donors to his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas, and his charitable foundation.

Mr Clinton is not required to reveal the list of donors, and has consistently refused to do so. Known foreign benefactors include the King of Morocco, the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, the Saudi Royal Family and the son-in-law of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s deposed President.

Since founding the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr Clinton says that he has garnered $46 billion (£30.6 billion) that has improved more than 200 million lives in 150 countries.

All Mr Obama’s potential Cabinet and White House appointees must answer an exhaustive 63-point questionnaire covering personal and professional dealings, including those of spouses. They are asked if there are “any categories of personal financial records . . . that you (or your spouse) will not release publicly. If so, please identify these records and state the reasons for withholding them”. In a copy of the questionnaire leaked by the Obama transition team to The Washington Post, the word Clinton had been scribbled next to that question.

One of the most controversial issues involved Mr Clinton’s dealings with Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining executive. It has been alleged that the former President helped him to win a uranium-mining contract in Kazakhstan. Months afterwards a foundation run by Mr Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Another pitfall that the Obama team wants to avoid is any impression that she might be influenced in how she deals with foreign leaders because of their links to her husband. If Mrs Clinton does become the country’s chief diplomat, other complications could arise as she starts building her team. Some of her foreign policy aides and Mr Obama’s enjoy a relationship of mutual mistrust. Meanwhile, Mr Obama held a closed meeting with John McCain in his transition offices in Chicago. Mr Obama has vowed to govern in a bipartisan spirit, and having a cordial relationship with Mr McCain – who will be an influential figure in the Senate – will be important. He also hopes to use Mr McCain’s congressional weight on areas where they share common legislative goals, such as tackling global warming and closing Guantanamo Bay.

In a joint statement, the pair said they had “a productive conversation . . . about the need to launch a new era of reform”, tackling “government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington”.

From foe to friend

December 2007
Mrs Clinton’s campaign releases a memo describing an essay that Mr Obama wrote in kindergarten entitled “I want to become President”, in an apparent attempt to show him as overly ambitious

January 21, 2008
Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton trade jabs at a debate in South Carolina, over her work on the board of Wal-Mart and his involvement with the convicted fraudster Tony Rezko

June 2008
Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama campaign together, for the first time, in Unity, New Hampshire

August 2008
Mrs Clinton calls at the Democratic convention for Mr Obama’s unanimous nomination

Source: Times archives

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