Nov 15, 2008 7:39 am US/Eastern
Flashback: Clinton 'Not Interested' In Cabinet Gig
N.Y.'s Junior Senator Has Said She Wants No Part Of Obama Administration, But That Could Change
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) kiss before boarding Obama's campaign plane at Reagan National Airport June 27, 2008 in Washington, DC.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Barack Obama, seen here on Jan. 5, 2007, before being elected president, approaches the media after a meeting with President Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Mannie Garcia/AFP/Getty Images
They were bitter rivals for the Democratic nomination, but CBS News has learned President-elect Barack Obama is considering Hillary Clinton for the top position in his cabinet, Secretary of State.
"Let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the President-elect's incoming administration," Clinton said.
Clinton played her cards close to the chest Friday about going from senator to secretary, but on Election Day she made her position perfectly clear to CBS 2.
"I'm not interested in serving in the administration," she told CBS 2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer on Nov. 4. "I want to roll up my sleeves and be a good partner in the Senate for the agenda that I hope will be successful in the next two years."
And political experts say even if the offer is extended, it could be more of an olive-branch to Clinton's supporters with full expectation Sen. Clinton would turn it down.
"She also may want to be the Senate Majority Leader, which is arguably a far more important, prestigious and powerful post than Secretary of State," said Lawrence Levy of Hofstra University.
Nonetheless, a Democratic insider tells CBS News it's under serious consideration.
If this happens, it falls to Gov. David Patterson to choose Clinton's replacement in the Senate. There would then be a special election in 2010 to select someone to serve out the remainder of Clinton's term, which expires in 2012.
But the governor has other things on his mind right now.
"I don't know anything," Paterson said Friday. "This is a rumor. I'm not going to speculate on speculation."
Choosing Obama's one-time rival for his cabinet would not be unprecedented. Abraham Lincoln biographer Harold Holzer says Obama's presidential idol did the same.
"Abraham Lincoln turned to the leading lights of the Republican party because there was an experience gap that people talked about during the campaign," Holzer said. "Lincoln had no executive experience and was an unseasoned national leader."
There's also the question of just how much influence the Secretary of State will have in an administration where the vice president is one of the foremost experts on foreign policy.
Other people frequently mentioned for the State Department job are Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and New Mexico's Democratic governor, Bill Richardson.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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