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47 DAYS TO INAUGURATION

Tom Brune

December 4, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is expected to give up a $4,700 pay raise given the secretary of state in January to get around a Constitutional ban on senators and representatives taking federal jobs whose pay was increased when they were in Congress. President George W. Bush on Jan. 4 ordered the raise to $191,300 from $186,600. Old Clinton foe Judicial Watch and some scholars say the raise should bar her from the job. But historically, Congress has stepped around the ban by rescinding the raise. Democratic aides say they will take that step for Clinton; many scholars say it satisfies the Constitution.

- Tom Brune

Former President Bill Clinton says it was hard for his wife to decide to give up her Senate seat to become secretary of state. Clinton told CNN in an interview aired yesterday from Hong Kong that Hillary was "shocked" when she learned by reading newspaper articles she was President-elect Barack Obama's likely pick for the nation's top diplomatic post. "She adored being in the Senate," Clinton said. He also said he'll probably be "a helpful sounding board" to his wife, but did not expect more involvement unless Obama "asks me to do something specific."

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said yesterday that he's interested in the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, and the field of possible candidates could narrow to make way for the president's younger brother. Bush, 55, won praise from Democrats and Republicans for leading the state through eight hurricanes over a two-year period. He used standardized testing to overhaul education, was credited with making government more efficient and lowered taxes to make Florida more business-friendly.

When a man sounding remarkably like President-elect Barack Obama called a Florida congresswoman yesterday, she assumed it was a crank call. So Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hung up. But, the Miami Herald reports, this was no prank. "I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me," Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. "They got Fidel Castro to go along. They've gotten Hugo Chávez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, 'Oh, no, I won't be punked.'" The call came about 1 p.m. Obama congratulated her on her re-election, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Ros-Lehtinen told the newspaper. The conversation lasted about a minute when she cut Obama off, telling him she wasn't falling for the hoax and that he was a better impersonator than the guy on Saturday Night Live, she said.