I think he should appoint Bill.

wackiness ensues

If Mrs Clinton is not leaving office until she is confirmed by the Senate, does she get to cast a vote in her own confirmation hearing?

By the way, I think it's really very risk-averse for her to wait to resign. She's not exactly Robert Bork.

...that guy from Delaware?

Or someone else who'll just hold the seat until Chelsea is ready to run?

Sure, in the past other presidents (can you spell R-i-c-h-a-r-d- N-i-x-o-n) have sneaked around Article 1, Section 6 by paying the nominee the old salary. Trouble is, the Constitution doesn't say the Senator or Congressperson cannot accept the higher salary . . . the Constitution says if the pay for the position was raised during the appointee's term . . . THEY MAY NOT SERVE. Period.

Screwing about with the Constitution is not the best way to begin a new Administration.

won't Napolitano be replaced by the Lt. Governor, who is a Republican?

Obama is a scholar of the Constitution who has taught Constitutional law. It seems like the most straightforward thing would be for someone to just ask him -- like someone in the NEWS business who isn't obsessed with Hillary's campaign rhetoric and is actually interested in current issues.

As a Constitutional lawyer, I have to believe (1) he understands the language of the Constitution and (2) this clause did not escape his notice during his deliberations about nominating Hillary.

President-Elect Obama resigned from the U.S. Senate, and Hillary Clinton ought to resign soon as well. U.S. Senator Durbin has been urging the recalcitrant governor of Illinois, a nebbish whose popularity is almost as low as George W. Bush's popularity, to appoint a successor soon so that Obama's replacement will have about a month's worth of seniority before the official start of the U.S. Senate's next term on January 6. Hopefully, the governor of New York is more agile than the nebbish in Illinois and has a possible replacement lined up already.

As for appointing Bill Clinton as the new junior Senator from New York, no, no, NO! Bill is far more useful as a 'shadow' Secretary of State.

1. This little-noticed clause in that formerly-irrelevant document may explain why no sitting Senators have been named to cabinet positions in several decades. It was illegal.

2. Just to be clear, laws and the afore-mentioned Constitution only apply to Democrats. And they apply double to Clintons.

3. The Republicans will have over 40 Senators when the good Senator's nomination comes up. Who thinks they won't block it? Isn't their strategy to block everything?

     3a. President Obama may find himself unable to staff a cabinet, the federal judiciary, and any other appointments that are traditionally made by newly-elected Presidents.

     3b. And good luck in getting any budgets passed...

4. Yeah, Clinton and Biden ought to resign today, to ensure that Republicans have a clear majority of the remaining Senators and can run the Senate throughout the rest of the lame duck session. Who sez a lame duck can't quack?

Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor. The Arizona Secretary of State fills the vacancy, which, unfortunately for Arizona, is a Republican Sarah Palin clone by the name of Jan Brewer.

I think the Clintons are the most power hungry family of my lifetime. Do they really want to serve and be people who make the world better or are they just looking for where they can have the most power. This power play by hillary is what really makes me think this. She is protecting her power like a good little illuminati. I have not clue why Obama picked her.

As a died in the wool Obama supporter, I think Hillary is a brilliant choice. She is exactly what Obama said she is: A challenge to his thinking, but he still makes the decisions.

And, suddenly the Republicans are reading the Constitution? Give me a break!

I stand corrected and it should be an article posted in Salon, as in, who is Jan Brewer? Sounds scary.

"...someone in the NEWS business who isn't obsessed with Hillary's campaign rhetoric and is actually interested in current issues."

Sadly, such creatures don't exist in the MSM anymore.

I, for one, would like to see RFK Jr. appointed to his dad's (now HRC's) Senate seat. It would be nice to have a real environmentalist in the Senate. (Okay, I am being a little unfair to the other two.)

Here's a thoughtful post-

Hillary Clinton needs to resign from the Senate soon!

President-Elect Obama resigned from the U.S. Senate, and Hillary Clinton ought to resign soon as well. U.S. Senator Durbin has been urging the recalcitrant governor of Illinois, a nebbish whose popularity is almost as low as George W. Bush's popularity, to appoint a successor soon so that Obama's replacement will have about a month's worth of seniority before the official start of the U.S. Senate's next term on January 6. Hopefully, the governor of New York is more agile than the nebbish in Illinois and has a possible replacement lined up already.

As for appointing Bill Clinton as the new junior Senator from New York, no, no, NO! Bill is far more useful as a 'shadow' Secretary of State.

-- Tom in Central Illinois

Tom's right about the race to appoint an Illinois replacement for Obama about fifteen minutes before the Senate freshman class of '08 is sworn in. It gives Illinois one leg up in seniority.

But Tom needs a lesson on what it means to be a "Shadow Secretary." Or maybe he doesn't! A "Shadow-anything" in parliamentary politics is the opposition party's putative nominee to fill the cabinet position if that minority party were to gain the majority. Is Bill Clinton going to be an "opposition" Secretary of State? You know, now that I think about it, he might just do a better job for us Republicans than Lindsey Graham. Who has Bill's assistant's Blackberry number?

Anyway, I think it is cute that Hilly is going to wait until she is confirmed into the Cabinet before she resigns from the Senate. That will deprive the New York replacement any seniority advantage, and it allows Hilly the 'out' of going back to the Senate if her confirmation hearing blows up. (That could never happen, could it?) We simply can't have a federal government without a Clinton, can we?

RFKJr. in the Senate: Oh, please. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleeeeeeeeze, let us have RFKJr., running for reelection in 2010. Against, say, Rudy Giuliani. After about two solid years of oppo-research on Junior. Part-time heroin-user, falconer, riverkeeper, junk-science-on-autism purveyor, part-time Air America host, full time, full blown, Kennedy freak. This is somebody who can make his cousin Patrick look like a normal guy!