Clinton: Delicate moves

Washington, Nov. 20: Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to all the conditions sought by President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team to eliminate potential conflicts of interest if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, people close to the Clintons said yesterday.

Clinton accepted several restrictions on his business and philanthropic activities to remove any obstacle to his wife’s nomination if the cabinet job is formally offered and accepted, said the associates.

The aides insisted that they not be identified because they were disclosing confidential negotiations. “I’ll do whatever they want,” Clinton said yesterday at a public appearance.

The discussions came as Obama moved forward in putting together the team he will bring to office in January. Obama has decided to nominate Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, as secretary of health and human services, Obama’s advisers said yesterday.

Daschle has accepted the offer, which would make him a point man in Obama’s ambitious plan to expand health care coverage.

Although Daschle’s nomination will not be officially announced for a while, the transition team did make public several expected White House appointments yesterday. They included David Axelrod, who was Obama’s chief campaign strategist and now will serve as senior adviser to the President, and Gregory B. Craig, who was Clinton’s impeachment defence lawyer and now will serve as White House counsel.

Washington continued to be gripped by the drama surrounding Hillary Clinton’s fate and the possibility that Obama might bring his toughest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination into his cabinet. Obama’s advisers said the talks had gone well, but would not say if an agreement to avoid conflicts had been reached, as the Clinton camp has indicated.

Even if the guidelines for Clinton’s future activities are on the verge of being resolved, Obama and Hillary Clinton must still decide if they can put the rancour of their long and bitter primary battle behind them. The two sides have a framework on “what he needs to do to satisfy the vetting concerns and that gives her an opportunity to consider the job on the merits”, said one person close to the Clintons.

Both sides were engaged in a delicate public and private dance, manoeuvring for position and reputation in case the deal falls through.

Aides in each camp have grown increasingly sour towards the other in recent days as the matter played out publicly.

In their public signals, the Clintons are trying to take the former President’s activities off the table as an issue, in their view eliminating any excuses for Obama not to give Hillary Clinton the job. Some in the Obama camp are bristling at what they see as strategic leaks by the Clintons aimed at boxing in the President-elect and forcing him to offer the post.