Clintons Front and Center Again

Barack Obama unveils a new national security team today with old faces, not least of which is the ghostly presence of Bill Clinton hovering in the background.

After weeks of negotiation, the former First Lady will be named Secretary of State, but where Obama vetting leaves off, the Senate confirmation process will take up untangling the former President's private foreign policy empire.

Sen. Dick Lugar, ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee indicated yesterday that "there will be questions raised, and probably legitimate questions” about Bill Clinton's "cosmic ties."

The New York Times reports Clinton will disclose names of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation, refuse contributions from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, stop holding its meetings overseas, let his speaking schedule be reviewed by the State Department and White House counsel and submit new sources of income to an ethical review.

“It’s a big step,” Senator Lugar says of the agreement, but there will almost certainly be Republican efforts to dig deeper for potential conflicts of interest.

During the primary campaign, there was widespread resentment about continuing the Clinton/Bush dynasties in Washington but, now that W's Neo-Cons are being sent off to the national security nursing home, here are the Clintons front and center again in the era of Change.