Definitely go visit Megan Carpentier's inspired, running account of Hillary Clinton's SecState nomination hearing today at FP's Madam Secretary (including her take on Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana), reportedly no stranger to scandal, trying valiantly to provide the day's only fireworks in interrogating HRC about her husband's foundation's donors.)

My overall sense, having tuned in on C-Span, was that HRC was good and comprehensive. She spoke to Obama's foreign policy vision, and to each individual senator's pet issues -- Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and his concern about nuclear terrorism, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), on workforce management issues, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), on the treatment of female contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), on violence against women overseas. The hearings for the most part overflowed with comity, such that in the end there was very little even feigned opposition to her nomination. She was a no-drama nominee.

A couple further observations from my notes, some channeled from back and forth with a Hill aide in the room, in roughly chronological order:

9:38am:
For those of you reading tea leaves, HRC was accompanied to the hearing room by an entourage that included:

• Daughter Chelsea (no sign of Bill)
• HRC national security advisor Wendy Sherman
• HRC Senate Armed Service Committee aide Andrew Shapiro
• HRC senior advisor and press officer Phillippe Reines
• Clinton foreign policy advisor Lee Feinstein
• Rich Verma, a former staffer for Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is reportedly in line to be assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs
• HRC "aide de camp" Huma Abedin

10:27am:
HRC is reading out verbatim a very long prepared statement -- not providing an abridged version of her written remarks, as one would expect.

10:31am:
We are only halfway through the statement.

10:59am:
Good first set of questions from Kerry. HRC made very clear she will divulge little today in way of future policy -- citing the need for policy review, consulting with allies, not wanting to get into details in advance of taking office, etc.

1:07pm:
For my money, the more instructive signals on what we can expect from the Obama administration are in those response to the Kerry QFRs (pdf, ~4.5 MB), not the back-and-forth during this hearing, which is general in nature.

Also worth noting: HRC's prominent focus in her remarks on "smart power," a framing introduced to the public sphere by Suzanne Nossel, a former deputy ambassador to the U.N. who is now the COO of Human Rights Watch.

HRC today:

The President-Elect and I believe that foreign policy must be based on a marriage of principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology. On facts and evidence, not emotion or prejudice. Our security, our vitality, and our ability to lead in today's world oblige us to recognize the overwhelming fact of our interdependence.

I believe that American leadership has been wanting, but is still wanted. We must use what has been called "smart power," the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural -- picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation.

With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy. This is not a radical idea. The ancient Roman poet Terence, who was born a slave and rose to become one of the great voices of his time, declared that "in every endeavor, the seemly course for wise men is to try persuasion first." The same truth binds wise women as well.

The committee could vote as early as Thursday on HRC's nomination.

Here are the two main themes of HRC's prepared statement tomorrow, as provided by one transition official:

1. A renewal of American leadership, and
2. A revitalization of diplomacy to promote our security interests and advance our values

One might expect fellow New York Sen. Charles Schumer to include the following in his remarks introducing Clinton:

Senator Clinton believes in "smart power" - using all the tools of foreign policy that are at our disposal. She also believes, as does the President-Elect, that diplomacy must be at the forefront of US foreign policy, and that it must be balanced with military power in ways that work for the 21st century.

Senator Clinton agrees with the President-elect that our country must be strong at home in order to be strong abroad - that our own progress depends on repairing our economy and working for shared economic growth and prosperity globally.

The Obama Administration will pursue engaged, cooperative American global leadership consistent with our democratic values. This will mean reaching out to create stronger partnerships with our allies and working to forge new bonds around the world. It will also mean investing in our common humanity as a way to achieve greater security.

Senator Clinton will speak about the importance of the State Department having the resources it needs to fulfill the critical demands of foreign policy in this new century and pursue the aggressive diplomacy of the Obama Administration.

Senator Clinton will emphasize that she will actively work in cooperation with Congress on foreign policy. She will stress the importance of bipartisanship, and of decision-making that is based on a marriage of principle and pragmatism, not ideology.

You can find a 79-page sneak preview of HRC's answers to incoming SFRC chairman John Kerry's prepared questions here (pdf, ~4.5 MB), some regarding donors to her husband's foundation. Also of note: Clinton tells Kerry, "No final decisions have been made on special envoys for South Asia."

One aide who encountered Clinton on her rounds visiting every member of the SFRC last week offered, "Overall, I was very impressed by HRC... She clearly has done her homework; she spoke with a clear command of the issues, and not just at a superficial level, but really getting into the details. She really wants to restore the Department's capabilities and resources."

That should come as no surprise, says the National Security Network's executive director Heather Hurlburt. "The fundamental thing is this is a woman who is a consummate professional," said Hurlburt. "She is not going to mess anything up. She is great at absorbing information, disciplined." The takeaway tomorrow, Hurlburt predicted, will be, "Hillary does it again."

As Secretary of State designate Hillary Clinton finishes final preparations for her Tuesday Senate confirmation hearing, some who early on devoted themselves to her rival's candidacy find themselves watching from the sidelines with a mixture of admiration, frustration, and disquiet, sources tell The Cable. Every four years, of course, a similar phenomenon takes place, and campaign advisors seeking positions in government get left behind.

Now, some Obama campaign foreign policy volunteer advisors -- many of whom put in long hours for no pay, taking career risks no doubt in part with the hope that should the long-shot junior Senator win, their hard work might eventually be rewarded -- are finding themselves on the outside looking in, and not sure where they should knock.

In conversations over the past couple weeks, sources have told The Cable that something has definitely changed about their relationship to Obamaland since the campaign ended. The transition's inner circle has become excessively secretive, closed, and far from transparent with them about the process for appointing people to jobs.

The irony, these people say, is that those who joined up with the Obama campaign early on -- some at the risk of alienating their old bosses in the Clinton administration -- now find that the Clintonistas have a patron who is taking better care of her people, as they see it, than Obama is of those who worked for him.

"It's an unprecedented situation," said one such frustrated former Obama foreign policy advisor who asked to remain anonymous. "I know what goes on in the transition process. But what is happening here is unprecedented in terms of secrecy and lack of information."

"President-elect Obama came into the campaign with no foreign policy experience," he continued. "He asked a few people to pull together a group of foreign policy experts to give him both credibility as well as advice. A lot of people put their personal and professional reputations on line and took significant risks in opposing Clinton."

On Nov. 7, Obama foreign policy volunteers received a final e-mail from Susan Rice and Tony Lake, the coordinators of the outside foreign policy teams, thanking them for their help, encouraging them to apply for jobs to change.gov, and imploring them not to talk to the press.

"Since Nov. 7, there has been absolutely no communication from the leaders of the foreign policy team," he continued. "Many people they organized and mobilized on behalf of President-elect Obama. And we are completely in the dark about the process."

It's not that everybody is going to get a job, he said he recognizes. But, in the view of some Obama volunteers, the transition is being needlessly secretive and closed with those who worked the longest and hardest for the candidate who won the White House. The lack of transparency "is so contrary to the values of the Obama campaign," he said. "People feel exploited."

"People feel certain groups have patrons," said another Obama campaign foreign policy advisor who asked to remain anonymous. "The Biden people have Biden, the Clinton people have Hillary. And then there's Chicago," referring to Obama's political operation. But the people who "staked their careers," by contributing their foreign policy expertise and loyalty to Obama early in the campaign aren't finding they have such a patron, for the most part. Partly it was because they were kept at arms' length from the Obama political operation during the campaign, she observed, and that the vast majority of their contact was indirect and coordinated by people who now aren't returning calls.

"The point is, how did it happen," the second volunteer advisor continued, that those who signed up earliest with Obama as foreign policy advisors feel most shut out of the process now and without a patron in the current scramble for jobs?

"The problem is," she continued, "these people [the Obama political operation] don't understand that government is different from forming coalitions during the campaign. When you run a campaign, you can say, ‘send e-mails, get on my blog,' you can have a rally, in order to get votes. But [the government] is made up of interlocking directorates. People play hardball. They all take care of each other." And some Obama people feel there is nobody fighting for them to get in, after they fought for him.

A third advisor said the indirect way that foreign policy advice and talking points were funneled to Obama's Chicago political operation means that very few actually had any face time with the president-elect's inner circle. Rice and Lake, meantime, have gone off the radar, and are not returning phone calls and e-mails, several advisors said.

"It's not just that it was all run through Susan and Tony, who couldn't protect people, although that's part of it," the third foreign policy advisor said. "It's that it was all done by Internet, which was both a strength and weakness. No one knows each other by face."

Another surprise for those who spent months working actively for Obama, he added, is that the top advisors many of them assumed would get senior administration jobs -- and have coattails to ride -- for the most part didn't. Only Rice, who has been tapped to be Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, has made it into the upper echelons. But "Susan is off to New York, with no coattails," the third advisor said.

A fourth Obama foreign policy volunteer said the anonymous grumbling from Obamaland about loyalty not being rewarded misses the big picture.

"Look, I think [Hillary Clinton] is loyal to a fault," he commented by e-mail. "She takes care of her own people, even when that is to her detriment, as was obvious during the campaign. Biden to a lesser extent, but there it is obvious that he would bring his own people from his Foreign Relations Committee staff into the government to advise him."

"As for Obama, as great as he is, loyalty is not his primary consideration in personnel selection," he continued. "He wants to pick the best and brightest, and he doesn't particularly care whether or not you were there with him from the very beginning. How else do you explain the Jim Jones pick for NSC?"

"There is carping out there," he added. "I am one of them who feels it is unfair. But you know what, it doesn't matter. So what if Obama pisses off some inside the Beltway wonks? We will all still be there for them in four years."

A transition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a query on the issue.

UPDATE: A transition official who did not wish to be quoted responded that such complaints were slightly baffling, seeing as no senior administration national security official had yet been confirmed, and adding that it could take a long time for the jobs to shake out. The official said that if these were people who thought they were going to be undersecretary, maybe they're disappointed, but for mid- and lower-level jobs it could take weeks, even months. The source also said that the transition was not just filling agency slots with political appointees but was considering recommendations for some structural changes to some positions and bureaus. The transition knows who worked for the campaign, but that obviously wasn't the only consideration, the official added.

State Department

Sources tell The Cable that the Center for a New American Security's Derek Chollet, a Washington foreign policy hand who has helped former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher write their memoirs, and been an aide to former Clinton Russia hand Strobe Talbott, is likely to be named deputy director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning (working under Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs).

Chollet, who also served as an advisor to John Edwards, "understands the building," commented one Washington Democratic foreign policy hand, saying that attribute would be a big help to Slaughter, who comes to Foggy Bottom from academia. "Chollet is a consummate Washington foreign policy specialist ... and has consistently been named one of the best young minds." Chollet declined to comment.

Sources also say that former Energy Department deputy undersecretary for defense nuclear nonproliferation Rose Gottemoeller, currently with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is expected to be tapped to serve as either assistant secretary of state for verification and arms control, special envoy to head up U.S.-Russian talks on strategic force reductions and other bilateral nuclear matters, or possibly both. "The issues overlap and by combining them, you give the assistant secretary more clout to get stuff done," explained one Washington nonproliferation expert. "It made sense to a lot of people."

Defense Department

Sources tell The Cable that former Clinton-era deputy undersecretary of defense James N. Miller, now senior vice president and director of studies with the Center for a New American Security, is going to be named principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, reporting to undersecretary of defense for policy Michele Flournoy, his current boss at CNAS.

Sandy Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Russia, and NATO, is expected to be named assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

NSC

Sources tell The Cable that Puneet Talwar, the chief advisor on Iraq, Iran, and the Middle East to Senator Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is likely to be named NSC senior director on the Middle East.

Former Clinton-era deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is likely to be named NSC senior director for Europe, sources say.

The McCain/Palin campaign may have prided itself on being tough on Moscow, but the incoming Obama administration has perhaps delivered the crueler blow. Sources suggest that the White House-in-waiting is close to deciding to officially downgrade Russia from meriting a senior director slot at the National Security Council. Instead, sources suggest, it will merit only a director role under the senior director for Europe.

The alleged change--which would bring the NSC structure into line with the State and Defense departments, where Russia is under Europe--affects key advisors negotiating for roles in the new Obama administration. Among them, the Obama campaign's senior lead advisor on Russia/Eurasia matters and the lead on the democracy sub-group, Michael McFaul, whose future role is still under discussion, and that of a number of Russia/Eurasia hands. McFaul wouldn't discuss reports that he is now being considered for a senior State Department job.

The latest we hear on the wider transatlantic appointment front: Philip Gordon, a Clinton-era NSC official now with the Brookings Institution who served as the Obama campaign's senior lead for the advisory team on Europe, is likely to be nominated to become assistant secretary of state for Europe, and not, as earlier reported, NSC senior director for Europe. (He didn't respond to a query). "Phil is exceptionally incisive at thinking through all the angles on complex and diplomatic issues, so he would be great," in either the State or NSC role, said one associate on background. "But having an ambassador rank and diplomatic status (which he would get as the State Department assistant secretary), and being out there working those issues, almost in the way Richard Haass has done in the past, makes more sense" than the long hours and constant inter-agency coordination involved in the NSC job. Among possible deputies and NSC Europe figures discussed are Jeremy Shapiro, Gordon's fellow Brookings Europe hand and co-author.

Another former Clinton-era NSC official at Brookings, Ivo Daalder, once discussed as an obvious choice to become NSC senior director on nonproliferation and who served as the campaign's senior lead advisor on that issue, is now said by two sources close to the transition to be under consideration as a possible U.S. ambassador to NATO.

Although the current ambassador (permanent representative to NATO), Kurt Volker, is a career foreign service officer, not a Bush political appointee, and was only sworn into the post in July, sources close to the transition say the Obama people may want to put a more senior person in that key role as they move to elevate the transatlantic relationship amid growing concern over NATO troop levels in Afghanistan. Volker is also said to be a possible victim perhaps of being perceived as having risen through the ranks under the wing of Daniel Fried, the outgoing assistant secretary of state for Europe. It would be unfortunate if Volker "is being punished for having risen through the ranks under eight years of a Republican Administration," one Democratic foreign policy advisor said. "Volker is a first rate Foreign Service Officer and a genuine rising star."

Daalder said he couldn't comment. An Obama transition press official did not immediately respond to a query.

President George W. Bush's Harvard Business School friend, U.S. ambassador to Hungary April H. Foley, was scheduled to have a farewell party at the embassy in Budapest next Wednesday. But the going-away shindig has been canceled, as Foley's ambassadorship has suddenly been extended a few months. The following notice was obtained by The Cable:

Foley, who became ambassador in 2006, applied for a six-month extension on her time in Budapest in November, but we're told Foggy Bottom said no. So why is she sticking around?

Well, when Foley was first appointed to head the Export-Import bank in 2003, the Washington Post's Al Kamen reported that "she used to date George W. Bush when both were at Harvard Business School and has remained friends with him." A source suggests Bush personally asked Obama at a meeting of current, future and former U.S. presidents this past week to give Foley an extension on her Budapest ambassadorship gig.

Asked about that, a White House spokeswoman said her colleague Dana Perino had made clear numerous times that the conversation between presidents was private.

As The Cable previously reported, the man selected to be deputy secretary of defense is William J. Lynn, the department's former comptroller, signaling an effort -- or at least a hope -- to get control of Pentagon spending. The following top appointments were announced today:

• William J. Lynn, deputy secretary of defense

• Robert F. Hale, under secretary of defense (comptroller)

• Michèle Flournoy, under secretary of defense (policy)

• Jeh Charles Johnson, general counsel

One hazard readers will appreciate: there are a lot of people close to the transition, who are reading what we all are reading, and talking to each other. There are a lot of echoes, and circular reporting. Then one goes to the principals, and for the most part they can’t confirm what job they are in discussions for. So one really has to feel one’s way in the dark. Tips and guidance appreciated.

Via Wikipedia

Multiple media and sources report tonight that former Clinton-era U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross has accepted a position to serve as the Obama administration's "envoy at large" on Mideast issues.

"Executives at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the think-tank where Mr Ross works, told the organisation's board that Mr Ross had ‘accepted an invitation to join the Obama administration as ambassador-at-large' in a job ‘designed especially for him,' covering a range of issues from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Iran," the Financial Times reports.

A State Department official who asked to remain anonymous responded to the report, "Dennis would be usurping a few positions at once:  NEA A/S [Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs] (and PDAS, who deals with Iran), Policy Planning chief (one of his old positions), and would be jostling with P [under secretary of state for political affairs] on Iran -- and probably the new Elliott [Abrams] at NSC.  Seems like a lot of cooks, and the Secretary et al would always get the benefit of Dennis's advice without having to create a new position for him with staffing, 7th floor accommodations -- and lots of top heavy confusion."

A Democratic national security official said, "My sources said that Ross was choosing between jobs at NSC and State, and that the State one was narrower but had negotiating authority. This suggests to me that his own negotiating authority is pretty excellent."

Meantime, a Georgetown University student who asked to remain anonymous writes, "Today my middle east policy class with Professor Ross (Georgetown University) was canceled because, in the past 24 hours, he has reached an agreement with the Obama Administration to run the Iran Portfolio for the State Department (as according to a fellow professor)." The student's report could not immediately be confirmed.

A Washington Jewish community activist commented that of key Democratic Mideast hands being considered for top jobs in the Obama administration -- Ross, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, Obama advisor and former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and Israel Daniel Kurtzer, and longtime former U.S. Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller -- "Ross would be probably the most conventional,... I think. He is first of all a relativist. Kurtzer has been much more of a progressive, pushing much harder to press Israel, Miller even more so...Dennis is more a centrist."

Another Washington Israel expert familiar with the team said, "I've gotten the impression with this 'envoy' system that there is a deliberate decentralization; no one person runs things the way Ross ran the peace process under Clinton. He has been particularly interested in Iran of late; ...I still continue to believe ... Ross will not have direct responsibility for Israeli-Palestinian peace; he's done that once and failed."

Officials with a Washington group that advocates for engagement with Iran, the National Iranian American Council, expressed concern at the reported appointment, noting that Ross was a signatory to a Bipartisan Policy Center report, which said that "a military strike is a feasible option and must remain a last resort to retard Iran's nuclear development."

Ross, a counselor and distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has written op-eds advocating for U.S. engagement with Syria, and more cautiously, multi-party talks with Iran. "Statecraft requires recognizing where one has leverage and where one's adversaries have vulnerabilities," Ross wrote in an op-ed, "Talk with Syria," in The New Republic last year. He also campaigned for Obama among the Jewish community in Florida.

Ross did not respond to e-mailed queries over the past two days about his possible role in the Obama administration.

As my colleague Carolyn O'Hara reported over at Madam Secretary this morning, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is likely to be held early next week. [UPDATE: Committee sources now say the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 13th, 9:30am]. The hearing forced incoming SFRC chairman John Kerry (D-MA) to cancel plans to join a Congressional delegation departing today led by outgoing chairman and VP-elect Joseph Biden to Southwest Asia, that includes Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Susan Collins (R-ME). [UPDATE: Biden's press office sends word that Collins and Reed, along with Kerry, "were originally scheduled to be in the delegation, but due to recently scheduled Senate votes over the weekend, they are now unable to go on the trip."] The exact destination of the Biden-led CODEL hasn't been publicized for security reasons, but is expected to include Afghanistan and Pakistan, and possibly Iraq. 

The trip has also pushed back a dinner that Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry had planned to host at their Georgetown home tonight for all committee members and their spouses. The delay may be just as well, because who, exactly, is going to be in the committee is still up in the air.

The uncertainty over its composition is due to two things: first, the loss of several key members -- that of Biden and former Sen. Barack Obama, who are of course moving to the White House, as well as the retirement of Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and the long-contested, now-litigated Minnesota Senate race which looks set to depose former SFRC member Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). (Republicans are suing to delay the seating of Coleman's seeming victor, Al Franken.)

Meantime, Senate Democrats still can't decide whether they are going to seat Roland Burris, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's choice to fill Obama's vacated Senate seat. At issue in the delayed final Senate tally is whether the Democrats get an additional two or three seats on the committees, including the SFRC.

"In a normal year, Kerry, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid, and [Senate Minority leader Mitch] McConnell would have already sat down and agreed on ratios and gotten all the assignments doled out," one committee staff member told me. "The problem this year is that with two seats still undetermined, Minnesota and Illinois, it makes a huge difference." Currently, the Democrats have 57 certain seats in the Senate and the Republicans 41. If the Democrats take Minnesota and keep Illinois, as looks likely, that would bring their numbers to 59.

Currently, the outgoing committee has 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Assuming the Dems wind up with 59 seats in the Senate, Reid is pushing for a three-seat margin. McConnell is arguing that the Dems are being too greedy. Negotiations have been at a standstill at last report.

"We are continuing to work on an organizing resolution that represents the larger majority that Democrats now hold in the Senate," Reid spokeswoman Regan LaChapelle responded to an inquiry last week.

While its composition and ratio are still up in the air, some staff changes are firming up on the fourth floor of the Senate Dirksen building. Kerry's personal Senate office chief of staff David McKean will become the committee's new staff director. The Minority staff director remains Ken Myers Jr., under ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN). 

In addition, according to Politico, Kerry foreign policy aide Frank Lowenstein is going to become chief counsel of the SFRC. Meantime, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that former LAT managing editor Douglas Frantz is to become the SFRC's chief investigator. The Times also reports that former Foreign Service officer and former Bush White House official Frederick Jones is to become the committee's communications director.

As for the SFRC member-spouse dinner at the Kerry's, which has now been pushed back until January 21st, committee staff members say it's a welcome gesture. "A nice touch to kick off the new Congress and establish a more intimate touch to the Committee," the committee staffer said. "Since Biden maintained his residence in Delaware, he never did anything like this."

As the saying goes, those who know aren't talking, and those talking don't know. But there are lots of exceptions. So, what are you hearing? Envoys, über-envoys? Ambassadorships? Deputy assistant secretaries? Senior directors, directors, desk officers? Upcoming confirmation hearing lines of inquiry? Send me some tips at laura.rozen@foreignpolicy.com.

Although President-elect Obama has decided to keep Robert Gates as defense secretary, and while Gates has reportedly chosen to keep as many as 160 of the 250 Schedule "C" political appointees at the Pentagon, uncertainty remains about top-tier posts.

Photo of William J. Lynn via Raytheon

Former Clinton-era Navy Secretary Richard Danzig has long been considered a likely successor to Gates, and conventional wisdom had it that he was a likely deputy defense secretary. But two Democratic sources familiar with the current thinking on the Obama team say the No. 2 person's role will primarily be to manage the department, rather than preparing to take the helm. Sources in Washington defense circles and media reports now say that former Clinton-era Under Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn (right) is likely to be get the deputy slot. My sources tell me that Lynn (pdf), a former Pentagon comptroller and more recently a senior vice president at Raytheon, is considered a "money" guy who can help get a handle on budget, system and personnel matters at the gargantuan bureaucracy during a war-time, recession-era administration.

Also said to be in line for top DoD jobs:

• Michele Flournoy, a former Clinton-era principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction who is now president of the Center for a New American Security. Sources say she is likely to be named the undersecretary of defense for policy (Eric Edelman's current and Doug Feith's old job)
• Two former senior Pentagon officials now affiliated with the Harvard Kennedy School: Ashton Carter, a former assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, and Sarah Sewall, who was the first deputy assistant secretary of defense for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance during the Clinton administration and is with Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Sewall wrote the introduction to the recent U.S. Army/Marine Counterinsurgency Manual. Neither could be reached for comment.
• Jennifer Palmieri, a former John Edwards aide, and Wendy Morigi, an Obama campaign spokeswoman and former Senate Select Committee on Intelligence spokesperson, are said by Democratic national security sources to be under consideration for top jobs in the Pentagon's public affairs shop
• Andrew Shapiro, Hillary Clinton's aide on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who may alternatively work with her at the State Department [UPDATE: A well-informed source says that Shapiro is most likely headed to the State Department with Clinton. Shapiro did not respond to a query.]

Sewall and Flournoy served as leaders of the national security agency review team for the official Obama-Biden transition, and Carter and Shapiro as members of the Defense Department agency review team. Danzig, Sewall, and Flournoy were on the transition's national security policy review group.

Earlier:

• Transition purgatory, part III: the State Department
• Transition purgatory, part II: the National Security Council
• Transition purgatory, part I: overview

Hearing more names? Are you up for a DAS position? Have the Feds visited you to do a background check on your neighbor? Overhear a transition huddle at your Starbucks? Give a holler: laura.rozen@foreignpolicy.com.

The designation of Hillary Clinton to be Barack Obama's secretary of state is expected to bring armies of former Clinton administration officials and Clinton loyalists to political appointee jobs at Foggy Bottom. Although Obama and Clinton appear to have healed any bruised feelings from the heated primary campaign, resentments and rivalries linger among some loyalists in both camps.

Some of the early Obamans worry that advisors from the Clinton campaign orbit may be better positioned to take plum positions in the Clinton State Department. "It looks as if right now, Clintonites are going to the State Department, and the Obama-ites are going to the NSC," said one retired State Department official, on condition of anonymity. "Foreign policy people from the winning [Democratic primary] candidate are getting secondary positions, while the ones from the losing candidate are getting assistant secretary positions," another former official said.

Clinton has chosen to appoint two deputies: James Steinberg, who previous to serving as deputy national security advisor in the Clinton administration was director of policy planning at State and provided advice to both Democratic candidates during the campaign; and Jacob "Jack" Lew, who directed the Office of Management and Budget in the (Bill) Clinton White House. Lew will focus on budget issues, namely trying to increase the department's budget and personnel. (Ironically in traditionally turf-conscious Washington, one of the biggest advocates for a bigger State Department has been none other than Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has warned against the dangers of military mission creep.)

Democratic foreign-policy watchers say Clinton selected her under secretaries and ran them by the Obama transition officials last week (some of them, including William J. Burns, the current under secretary of state for political affairs and recent U.S. point man on Iran, who is very well regarded inside the department, and Patrick Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management, are expected to hold over in the next term). Nonproliferation community experts say that retired Foreign Service officer Robert Einhorn, who was a top nonproliferation advisor to the Hillary Clinton campaign (and later for Obama) and is currently at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is expected to be named undersecretary of state for arms control and international cooperation. (He did not immediately respond to a query).

At the next level, former Bill Clinton-era deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and NSC official Kurt Campbell, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, who advised the Hillary Clinton campaign, is expected to be named assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs. His wife Lael Brainard, a former White House economics hand now with the Brookings Institution, is expected to get a top economics post, possibly assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. Former Clinton-era State Department counselor and North Korea expert Wendy Sherman, a close Hillary Clinton associate and advisor, is said to be being considered for several possible top State jobs as well, including that of North Korea envoy plus counselor, or under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, sources said. (Sherman co-led the State Department agency review team for the Obama transition, along with Thomas Donilon, who has since been named deputy national security advisor.)

Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is likely to be named director of policy planning, sources said. She'd be the first woman to run the State Department's in-house think tank.

Sources said former NSC Africa hand Gayle Smith, of the Center for American Progress, is being considered to head USAID.

Two names have emerged as leading contenders to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs: Daniel Kurtzer, an Obama campaign Middle East advisor and former Clinton-era U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, and Beth Jones, a former State Department official who is currently with APCO, the communications firm. (Former A/S NEA David Welch retired last month and joined Bechtel).

But working out the staffing for senior State Department positions on the greater Middle East is being complicated by the fact that several heavyweight figures are being considered for appointments as special envoys. Among them, Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., is said by several sources to be in negotiations to be the special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, reporting directly to Secretary Clinton; former U.S. Mideast peace envoy Dennis Ross is said to be in negotiations for a possible role as U.S. special envoy on Iran, plus possibly a more expansive portfolio. Special envoys are also being considered for the Israel-Palestinian peace process, Iraq, and North Korea.

Sources said top Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer Puneet Talwar is under consideration for a deputy assistant secretary post on Near East Affairs (he advised Biden and the SFRC on Iran, Iraq, and Middle East issues), or an NSC slot. (Talwar declined to comment). Also up for a senior State Department job, Toni Verstandig, an Albright-era deputy assistant secretary for Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula Affairs, who served with Talwar on the Obama transition's State Department agency review team looking at Iran and Mideast issues.

Another key but low-profile figure who has emerged as influential on national security personnel decisions in the Obama transition is Christopher Kojm, former deputy director of the 9/11 commission, former deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence policy, and member of the Iraq Study Group (of which Obama's reported choice to run the CIA Leon Panetta was also a member). Kojm has been on the Obama transition national security policy review team, and has spoken with a number of former national security officials in vetting possible appointments, both at State and on other national security matters, although it's not clear what position, if any, he might take.  

Earlier:

• Transition purgatory, part II: the National Security Council
• Transition purgatory, part I: overview

Yes, it's anxiety time for the hundreds of would-be Obama foreign policy advisors. Soon enough there will be some pretty big names left without a chair to sit on. Meantime, here's our agency-by-agency guide to the Great Job Scramble of 2009, national security edition.

Although President-elect Obama pretty quickly tapped retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones as national security advisor and Tom Donilon, former Clinton assistant secretary of state for public affairs, as his deputy, there's been precious little word since on who will join them (though Obama campaign foreign policy aide Mark Lippert is said to be a lock on NSC chief of staff).

In fact, there's fewer political plums here than you would think: Only a dozen or so positions to be filled immediately, given that much of the NSC staff is seconded from other federal agencies who will hold over in the new administration's early months. Not only that, but the Obama team reportedly plans to scale back the NSC from its Bush/Cheney days. Under Bush, the NSC had six deputy national security advisor positions; the Obamans are looking to a more traditional, flatter model, my sources tell me, with as few as one deputy national security advisor and senior directors for different regional and functional areas below that (Europe, etc.).

The likely new chief of staff, Lippert also could score the prestigious title of "assistant to the president" -- traditionally only given to the national security advisor, not his or her deputy. But Lippert's closeness to Obama seems to have earned him the unusual access. He started out on the Democratic Policy Committee in the late 1990s, where he got to know the Senate leadership staff under Tom Daschle well, and in early 2005, he became Obama's foreign policy legislative assistant, the only foreign policy staffer Obama had as a senator. Friends say Lippert ended up there because Pete Rouse, the former Daschle chief of staff, was Obama's chief of staff and knew Lippert from the DPC. 

"Mark has a very strong reputation, is known as a likable, easy-going fellow. Doesn't have any pretentious airs about him," one Hill friend said. "I have heard that he will be Jones's chief of staff at the NSC staff, but will also hold the rather extraordinary title of Assistant to the President. You can't go any higher than that -- traditionally, that means you have access to the Oval Office whenever you want and can review all papers that go to the President." Lippert, a Navy intelligence reservist who was deployed to Iraq for a year in 2007 while serving as the Obama campaign's foreign policy advisor, recommended another longtime Senate staffer, Denis McDonough, previously with the Center for American Progress, to work as the Obama campaign's top foreign policy advisor while he was deployed.

Still unclear is who will become senior NSC directors on several key issues, including defense, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, democracy, and intelligence. My sources suggested three former Clinton-era NSC officials currently with the Brookings Institution are likely to take key roles: Philip Gordon, former Clinton NSC aide for the Europe senior director post; Ivo Daalder for senior director on nonproliferation; and Jeffrey Bader for senior director for Asia.

Daalder is an "obvious choice," Ploughshares president Joseph Cirincione, who served on a team of nonproliferation experts (led by Daalder) advising the Obama campaign, told me. "He has NSC experience, he is one of the top proliferation experts in the country. He did a superb job organizing the nonproliferation portfolio for the campaign. He is an excellent bureaucratic fighter and someone you want to have the power to coordinate between competing factions."

Bader and Daalder said they couldn't discuss future employment. Gordon and Lippert did not respond to queries.

See also:

• Transition purgatory, part III: the State Department
• Transition purgatory, part I: overview

Early reaction to the news today that President-Elect Obama plans to name former congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to be his CIA director was greeted by intelligence watchers in town with something approaching mystification. "Panetta???" came one e-mail.

Panetta doesn't have an intelligence background. The latest word from some who had been informally advising the Obama campaign on intelligence matters the past few days was that the Obama people were going to let expected Director of National Intelligence nominee retired Adm. Dennis Blair have a big hand in picking the CIA director (and take responsibility for the decision). The Obama people, it was said, were inclined to pick someone "not political" in order to avoid some of the unhappiness of, say, the Porter Goss period. And given how the Obama team was hammered by the left for considering former senior intelligence official John Brennan to be CIA director, Obama would be disinclined to pick someone closely associated with the intelligence controversies of the recent Bush-Tenet era. In the end, only that latter hunch proved correct.

"My initial reaction is, I am sorry that there was felt a need to replace the current director," former senior CIA official Paul Pillar, now with Georgetown University told me. "Gen. [Michael] Hayden is a military and intelligence but primarily intelligence professional who has performed his duties in each job he has held in an honorable fashion, so far as I have knowledge of them."

Asked if the Obama team was making a politically safe choice over someone with known deeper experience on intelligence matters, Pillar demurred. "There has been enough controversy over enough of these issues involving the intelligence community. And there has been enough expectation and demand for change, that I expect it was felt amongst the president elect's advisors, whatever their personal view of what is right, that the political context and environment was such that a change was required."

A former senior CIA manager said the message of the Panetta appointment was clear: "The message is, 'I don't want to hear anything out of the CIA. Make it go away. No scandals. Keep it quiet,'" the former officer told me. "They put over there a guy who is a political loyalist, who will keep everything nice and quiet, but who won't know a good piece of intelligence from a shitty piece of intelligence, and wouldn't know a good intelligence officer" from a bad one.

But former intelligence analyst Greg Treverton, now with the Rand Corporation, said Panetta's experience as a former White House chief of staff might give him a unique understanding of the presidency and its needs for intelligence. "One of my experiences with people like Panetta who have been chief of staff is that they have a clear sense of what is helpful to the president that most senior officials don't," Treverton told me. "They get it. What he could do and couldn't do. And that's an interesting advantage Panetta brings. Knowledge of what the presidential stakes are like, how issues arise, and what they need to be protected from, for better or worse."

Retired CIA deputy director for the East Europe division Milt Bearden said Panetta is a "brilliant" choice. "It is not problematic that Panetta lacks experience in intelligence," Bearden e-mailed. "Intel experience is overrated. Good judgement, common sense, and an understanding of Washington is a far better mix to take to Langley than the presumption of experience in intelligence matters. Having a civilian in the intelligence community mix is, likewise, a useful balance. Why not DNI?"

The Panetta choice also makes sense to him, said Philip Zelikow, a former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (and Foreign Policy writer). "The issues of presidential trust and clean hands are, at this moment in history, most important," Zelikow said by e-mail. "And even an 'intelligence professional' would have to rely on others in many ways. ... So Obama and his team have made a certain kind of tradeoff." 

Initial Hill reaction was one of puzzlement, and consternation by at least one key senator that she had not been consulted on the choice. "I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director," incoming chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was cited by the Los Angeles Times. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time." Confirmation prep teams, take note. 

Amid the pre-inaugural hoopla, a specter is haunting Obamaland.

Dozens of national-security and regional experts who worked intensively as volunteers on policy teams for the Obama campaign -- writing talking points, doing debate prep, checking facts, following RUMINT, and rebutting opposition attacks -- have grown anxious and quiet as they await word on what jobs they might (or might not) be offered in the new administration.

"I'm hoping to be put out of my misery next week," one such expert who worked with the Obama campaign told me recently. Many who were policy insiders during the Obama campaign now feel like outsiders, temporarily in limbo. Once in frequent contact with the campaign's foreign policy advisors, some experts say that for the past few weeks, they have experienced what amounts to radio silence. For some, there is uncertainty too about who, exactly, is making the decisions and how the appointments announced so far could influence further staffing decisions, as Obama's Chicago campaign operation has evolved into the formal transition. The national security team for this period has been headed by Susan Rice, who has been designated to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Clinton-era deputy national security advisor Jim Steinberg, who has been chosen to be deputy secretary of state.

But now, amid the information vacuum, conspiracy theories abound: "It's Hillary's fault," referring to the belief among some would-be appointees that Clinton people will predominate in the State Department, has been succeeded by "It's Biden's fault," referring to fears that prized White House slots will go to Biden loyalists and others from their network of Senate staffers rather than early members of Obama's foreign advisory teams.

These teams -- about two dozen in all -- were also organized by regional and functional areas. Each was headed by a senior "lead," often paired with a usually younger "coordinator," although some leads coordinated their own teams, and some teams, such as Asia, had several deputies. Among those still awaiting official word:

• On Europe, former Clinton-era National Security Council official Philip Gordon of the Brookings Institution was the senior lead. Other advisors expect him to be named senior director for Europe on the NSC. He did not immediately respond to an email inquiring about his future role.
• On Asia, former Amb. Jeffrey Bader, a veteran Foreign Service, NSC, and U.S. Trade Representative official and China specialist who has headed the Brookings Institution's China Initiative, served as the senior lead, and Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia specialist on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, as the Korea policy coordinator. (The Asia group had several deputies, focused on China, Japan, Korea, etc., according to participants.) Bader is likely to be named NSC Senior Director on Asia, a Washington Asia specialist said on condition of anonymity. Bader did not respond to an email inquiring about his role. (Mona Sutphen, a former diplomat and special assistant to former NSC advisor Sandy Berger and recently with Stonebridge International LLC, a business advisory group, served as an administrator for the Asia group, and has been named White House deputy chief of staff, reporting to Rahm Emanuel.)
• On South Asia, former CIA and NSC official Bruce Riedel, of the Brookings Institution, served as the senior lead during the campaign and the transition. "I have no plans to leave Brookings," he told me. Jonah Blank, a Harvard-trained Ph.D. anthropologist and writer who has worked as the chief advisor on South Asia to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, served as the team's rapid response coordinator. Blank is said to be under consideration for a top State or NSC job on South Asia. He declined to comment on a future role.
• On Africa, Gayle Smith, a former Clinton-era NSC advisor on Africa now with the Center for American Progress and co-director of the Enough campaign, was the senior lead. Democratic foreign-policy watchers told me she was being considered to become head of USAID. She directed an inquiry on her future status to the transition team's press officer, who said the position had yet to be announced.
• On Latin America, Dan Restrepo, a former House International Relations committee Democratic staffer and director of the Americas Project at the Center for American Progress, was the senior lead.
• On Russia and Eurasia, Stanford political science professor Michael McFaul was the senior lead, and Georgetown professor Celeste Wallander the deputy. McFaul is said to be under consideration for a top regional or democracy job in the administration. He declined to comment on his status.
• On development and democracy, CAP's Gayle Smith and Jeremy Weinstein, of Stanford University, served as the leads, and Stanford's McFaul coordinated its democracy sub-working group.
• On nonproliferation, Ivo Daalder, a former Clinton NSC official now with the Brookings Institution, served as senior lead and the coordinator, and is said to be under consideration to be an NSC advisor on nonproliferation. "I can't comment on future employment issues," he emailed.
• On Iraq, Colin Kahl, of Georgetown University and the Center for a New American Security, served as a rapid response coordinator.
• On the Middle East, Daniel Shapiro, a former Clinton era NSC official and former Senate staffer, served as a coordinator. He was also the Obama campaign's outreach coordinator to the Jewish community. Both Kahl and Shapiro declined to discuss their status.

One senior military expert told me that the only people calling him so far to find out what job he'll take in the new Obama administration are... journalists.

More to come.

Welcome to Foreign Policy's The Cable. I'm Laura Rozen, a journalist who has been reporting on foreign policy and national security from Washington since 2001. Previously, I reported as a freelance journalist for half a dozen years from the Balkans, Turkey, and Russia.

The Cable will be working the phones and talking with sources to provide in-depth reporting on Washington's foreign policy scene, from Foggy Bottom to the Hill, the White House, think tanks and Embassy Row -- and the interactions between the agencies and players where much policy debate gets worked out. I hope to bring you first-rate foreign policy reporting, and to break news, both on substantive policy debates and on Washington's foreign policy world as a workplace.

I'll be looking to you for tips, insights, analysis, hallway gossip, draft memos, after-action reports and the back stories that otherwise might go missed. So please, be in touch, and let me know what you're hearing.