Despite the Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 6, clause 2 of the Constitution), Barack Obama is forging ahead with the nomination of Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.

Via My Way News:

Obama plans to appear at a morning news conference Monday in Chicago to announce Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state.

To review, the Emoluments Clause states that, while a person is serving a term of office to which they were elected, he or she may not be appointed to any civil office which was newly created, or for which the compensation was increased in that same term.

According to Red State:

The salary of the Secretary of State was increased in January 2008 by an executive order, promulgated pursuant to a 1990s cost of living adjustment statute. Because the increase occurred during the time Hillary was a Senator she can not be the Secretary of state.

Richard Nixon had the same problem when he nominated Senator William Saxbe to be his AG.  The AG’s salary was subsequently lowered and it was known as the “Saxbe Fix”.  I questioned last week whether a similar move could be underway for Hillary.  I guess we know that “the Clinton Fix” is on.

Really this doesn’t bother me very much at all.  Why?  Because it royally ticks off the peacenick moveon.org types who thought the election of Obama was the end of war as we know it in the world.  That he would bring peace and harmony and tweeting birds, flowing glassy rivers and rainbows back to the American landscape (it’s like they live in their own Thomas Kinkade painting…minus the religion of course).  Hillary is a hawk compared to Obama and far leftists are shocked…Shocked! I tell you, at the thought that Obama is becoming less dovish.

Via Politico:

It’s a disorienting moment for the peace wing of the Democratic Party, at once elated America selected a new president opposed to the Iraq war and momentarily disoriented by the imminent removal of a commander-in-chief whose every action they’ve opposed for the past eight years.

“Shock has paralyzed them for the moment,” said Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who writes The Washington Note, a popular foreign policy blog. “We are in an Obama bubble now. And it’s tough to step out and be first to deflate the bubble.”

Now before I continue relishing in the far left’s complete ineptitude to understand how our world works, I’m going to don my political strategist hat and and actually give Barack Obama high marks for his choices in dealing with war time matters.

(Read more after the leap)

Gotta give credit where credit is due when it comes to Barack Obama.  As Abdul says, “he did the one thing Republucans couldn’t and that’s defeat Bill and Hillary Clinton”.  He’s also been adhering to the cardinal rule of politics, keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer.  He’s laced his political appointments so far with former Clinton White House staffers and even extended a pseudo-olive branch to Hillary by offering her the position of Secretary of State which, let’s be honest, she is qualified for.   But could a little known rule that says a Congressman or Senator is ineligible for a Civil position if a pay raise occurs while they are an elected official prevent Hillary from becoming SoS?

From AOL’s Political Machine:

The source of the issue is something called the Emoluments Clause, which is a clause in the Constitution that essentially states that, while a person is serving a term of office to which they were elected, he or she may not be appointed to any civil office which was newly created, or for which the compensation was increased in that same term. So because there was a pay raise given to the position of Secretary of State during Senator Clinton’s current term, she is ineligible for appointment to this office. The wording: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.”

Does this keep her from getting the job? Not entirely. This has happened before, most recently when President Nixon tapped Sen. William Saxbe as his AG. How’d they get around it? They decreased the salary and the move was then known as the “Saxbe Fix”. Could we be in for a “Hillary Fix”? I guess it depends on just how badly she want the job.

Oddly enough, the site that broke this story was Daily Kos.

“Obama has two months.” – Clinton Delegate

In my humble opinion, as speeches go, Hillary gave a great speech that puts her in the lead for a potential nomination in ‘12 should Obama not win this year.