What's the Deal with Hillary?

Off the bat it sounds bizarre that Obama would be willing to subject himself to four years of Hillary Clinton in his cabinet. Assuming he's no sucker for punishment, what's up with her appointment and all the demands along with it?

Before Hillary Clinton has been formally offered the job as Secretary of State, a purge of Barack Obama's top foreign policy team has begun.

One might think there was some kind of primary deal between these two, eh? And it seems like a pretty good one for the Clintons as she'll apparently have a lot of flexibility to run and staff State as she pleases:

In negotiations with Mr Obama this week before agreeing to take the job, she demanded and received assurances that she alone should appoint staff to the State Department.

Joe Wilson, Val Plame and Sandy Berger--keep your cell batteries charged!

As Power Line noted, the New York Times always has a humorous take on the situation disguised as serious journalism:

During the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton went out of their way to point out their foreign policy differences, with Mrs. Clinton portraying herself as a hawkish Democrat and defending her decision to vote in favor of the 2002 resolution that Mr. Bush later considered an authorization to use military force against Saddam Hussein. (Later, she said she fully expected Mr. Bush to use diplomacy first — and was shocked that he did not.)

They forgot the second "shocked". Hillary knew exactly what Bush was going to do and approved of it. There's video evidence.

But when faced with an outsider who pitched his tent on the edge of nutrootville and made his anti-war judgment the centerpiece of the election she had no choice but to think of an excuse. Instead of something effective she came up with "had I known then what I know now, I'd never have voted for it", which ironically would have worked back in the old VRWC days but not with a shiny new knight sitting at the round table.

Such nonsense scuttled her chances with the netroots and likely lost her the nomination. It's becoming somewhat clear now, based on the reality of his cabinet picks, that Mr. One skillfully used them without appearing to use them, one of his many rhetorical talents (there'll be a time to steer back towards port after the crisises are solved). But part of his victory was the deal he had to make with BubbaInc, since as everyone knows his vote count came up just shy of screw you. So obviously, this is it.

Can't he just fire her if she gets on his or Michelle's nerves? Yes, but a 'woman scorned' can be a thing of utter nastiness, especially with an established network and a scandal-loving press. Let's hope these two can get along at least a year--for the good of the nation if nothing else.