By Daniel Klaidman

When president-elect Barack Obama rolls out his national security team tomorrow in Chicago, he will make history on several fronts. While the naming of Hillary Clinton, whom he battled against in an epic campaign for the Democratic nomination, as secretary of state, has garnered most of the attention, two other women, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, who will be named as Homeland Security secretary, and Susan Rice, who will be named UN ambassador, will be tapped for prominent posts. And his decision to retain George W. Bush's Secretary of Defense has created buzz.  But Obama will also blow through a racial barrier when, according to transition officials who declined to be named,  he plans to announce Eric Holder, Jr. as his choice to be attorney general, the first African American named to the country's top law enforcement post. 

Holder, a former deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, possesses a glittering resume, having held key positions throughout the ranks of the Justice Department and elsewhere in the legal profession. He earned his spurs as a crime fighter putting away crooked Philadelphia judges as a prosecutor in the department's Public Integrity section. Years later, he served as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia where he won the conviction of Dan Rostenkowski, the all-powerful Illinois congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In between his stints at Justice, Holder served as a judge on the DC Superior Court.  As deputy attorney general Holder was popular within the department as a champion of career prosecutors—and well regarded on Capitol Hill for his low-key demeanor and responsiveness.

The one blemish on career stems from the frenzied last days of the Clinton administration, when the former president handed out a series of pardons to friends and supporters. Holder's acquiescence to the pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich was sternly criticized. He acknowledged the mistake at the time. The controversy is sure to come up during Senate confirmation hearings, but Obama transition officials have been assured that Holder's confirmation will not be jeopardized by the Rich pardon. Holder counts among his supporters top Republicans, including FBI Director Robert Mueller and Orrin Hatch, the GOP senator from Utah and long-time member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Holder first met Barack Obama in 2004 at a Washington dinner party hosted by Ann Walker Marchant, the niece of Washington lawyer and power broker, Vernon Jordan, Jr.  Holder sat next to the new senator and the two men hit it off.

After securing the democratic nomination earlier this year, Obama tapped Holder to help lead his vice-presidential search—a decision that led to the selection of Joseph Biden.

The policy wonks in Washington got their fix this week. Obama's announcement of top level posts at Treasury and confirmed rumors about the chiefs of State (Clinton), Justice (Holder), and Defense (incumbent Gates) fill out the top ranks of the new president's cabinet.

But the science and environmental community is awaiting the next round of appointments, rumored to be Obama's policy people on energy and the environment, who will play hefty roles in two areas Obama campaign on heavily. The posts: Energy, Interior, Agriculture and the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, all of which will work together on components of Obama's vision for American food production, the economy and the planet. There are some big-name long shots, like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leading Energy and enviro activist Robert Kennedy, Jr. at the head of the EPA. Several congressmen from western states are jockeying for the reins at Interior. Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has been considered the favorite for Agriculture, though this week he deniedhaving any talks with the transition team.

To the energy and environment community, Obama's election is, naturally, a breath of fresh air. (Double pun!). "For the last several years, we've been saying that our number one priority is turning the page on energy and the environment, and for the past several years, our ideas have gotten almost no reception," says Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, the widely respected DC policy group that monitors all government action on the environment and the leaders behind them.

Pleased that Obama hinged much of his campaign on changing course on climate and energy, scientists and environmental activists expect big things from the new administration. A handful of prominent environmental groups have banded together to release a joint statement on how they think Obama should prioritize. First, they say, he'll have to institute pollution regulations to cap carbon emissions and encourage trading of carbon credits. In broad terms, they've asked him to invest in clean water, clean air and conservation -- not only for environmental protection, but to boost the economy. The demands fit nicely with what Obama has proposed, both on the stump and in casual references since his election. He has said repeatedly that polluters should be taxed, not get tax breaks, and that he wants to invest more than $150 billion in clean and renewable energy tech over the next decade, stimulating the economy and decreasing reliance on fossil fuel-based power.

But the thing that has frustrated environmental and energy groups the most during the Bush years is the lack of scientific thinkers in the top levels of the government. Political appointees under Bush have gotten relentless criticism for distorting the work of scientists who make recommendations on the environment and the natural world. Making sure federal decisions are based on science, not politics, is something, they say, Obama must do better.

Though presidential candidates often say that education will be one of their top priorities, the job of education secretary is often among the last cabinet seats filled. While Barack Obama's transition team hasn’t floated any names yet, the education establishment---reformers, teachers’ unions, colleges and universities--has no shortage of candidates. What no one knows is whether Obama is leaning toward someone from the more innovative end of the reform movement (the group Democratic Rep. George Miller, who heads the U.S. House education committee, admiringly calls the “Disrupters”) or a candidate with close ties to the teachers’ unions. Long a key constituency in the Democratic Party, the unions are now under attack by the Disrupters, who see teachers’ protectiveness of tenure and seniority as barriers to dramatic reform, particularly in failing urban schools.

The innovators, who have made key alliances with corporate donors and politicians eager for a faster pace of reform, want one of their own in the top spot. Their favorites include New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, who has helped transform the country’s biggest urban school system; Jon Schnur, the head of New Leaders for New Schools, who acted as an Obama surrogate during the campaign; Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system and founder of the New Teacher Project; Kati Haycock, the outspoken head of Education Trust, a nonpartisan powerhouse pushing for bold education reforms, or Wendy Kopp, who founded Teach for America, which funnels new graduates of prestigious colleges into hard-to-fill teaching positions.

The teachers’ unions prefer someone like Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford who acted as a surrogate for Obama during the campaign or former Gov. Jim Hunt of North Carolina, both reformers who have a long history of working respectfully with the unions on issues like increased teacher professionalism. There’s even talk of Obama choosing one of their own, like Randi Weingarten, the savvy new president of the American Federation of Teachers.

During the campaign, Obama managed to convince both groups that he shared their vision of change. Teachers liked his criticism of the federal No Child Left Behind reform plan as inflexible and underfunded, and his promise that future reforms would be done with them, not to them. The innovators were encouraged by his shout-out to Rhee during the third presidential debate, his call for performance-based pay for teachers and his enthusiasm for the expansion of charter schools. However, when Obama recently put Darling-Hammond in charge of his education policy transition group (immediately raising the perception that she was a candidate for the top job), there were howls of protest from the Disrupters, who fear a return to the more modest and incremental pace of reform that characterized the Clinton years.

What about someone who can bring both sides together? Names that come up in those conversations include former secretary of state Colin Powell, who has long had an interest in education, as well as programs benefiting disadvantaged youth; Arne Duncan, who is well known to Obama as chief executive of Chicago’s public schools as well as a basketball-playing buddy; and Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, an independent thinker who has been notably successful in attracting and graduating minority students in highly demanding college science and technology programs. Other governors getting buzz include Republican Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, former president of Drew University, and chairman of the 9/11 Commission, as well as Democrat Tim Kaine, the current governor of Virginia, who made Obama’s short list for vice president.

If the country’s economic woes slow down, Obama’s ability to boost education funding as promised, he may focus on someone who could wield the power of the bully pulpit as skillfully as Bill Bennett did during the early Reagan years. Powell and Hrabowski would both meet that criteria, while adding racial diversity to the cabinet.

It's a long way from "a warm bucket of piss." That, of course, was the graphic metaphor used by John Nance Garner, vice president under FDR, who equated the vice presidency to just that—a worthless collection of fresh urine.

Oh, look how far we've come.

At today's press conference, at which Obama named the top levels of his economic team, he signaled more history in the making. "Today," he said, "Vice President-elect Biden and I are pleased to announce the nomination of four individuals who meet these criteria to lead our economic team," he said before naming New York Fed Chairman Tim Geithner to head Treasury and several others who will work in the administration.

Biden and I are pleased? Rarely do presidents (and especially presidents-elect) share ownership over an administration they worked so hard to win. The extreme was George Washington, who banished his veep John Adams from his first cabinet meeting, asserting that Adams wasn't a central player in his government. But Obama's inclusion of Biden in the announcement signals that Biden will play a much heftier role in the administration—not just the ceremonial kind like Dan Quayle, or the there-when-needed kind like Al Gore, or the curiously-behind-the-scenes kind like Dick Cheney. No, Obama made clear that this decision is our decision. And whether it's a good or bad decision, it's our decision.

Biden didn't speak at the conference, although an early summary of the remarks does list Biden as a speaker. And sources within the transition report that Biden is involved in the highest levels of decision-making on appointees.

The reference could have a more subtle reference tacked on as well. Calling out Biden as a co-decision maker sends a strong signal to the rest of the cabinet that Biden is his point man, his confidant, his ... partner in change, if you will. And there's only so much room at the top of an administration. That's logical and fine for the likes of Geithner and likely AG nominee Eric Holder, who will know their place in Obama's cabinet. But for people with bigger personalities and egos who could be joining the administration, like, say, Hillary Clinton, Obama's early nod toward Biden could quietly but firmly signal who's in charge.

And with whatever—and whomever, more importantly—a Hillary secretary of state would be bringing to the administration, Obama would want little question about exactly which two people are running the show.

On a Friday afternoon -- and the one before Thanksgiving, at that -- Washington is a quiet place. The few people on the streets are the ones heading home. Everyone else is avoiding the cold. Federal security officials stand on the corners, as usual, pacing back and forth while their earpieces remain silent. Despite all that's rocked America over the past few months, downtown Washington, at least today, is almost like a ghost town.

But behind closed doors, Secret Service and DC police have been scurrying all week in preparation for the biggest weekend Washington has even seen, which is just eight weeks away. First the number tossed around was half a million, twice as much as the city usually accommodates during the huge July 4 celebration on the National Mall. Then it ballooned to a potential one million. Then, virtually overnight, speculators adjusted the number: four million people, the Washington Post reported this week, would descend on Washington, demanding -- not asking -- to see a piece of history. (The Secret Service won't reveal how many people it is planning for, but says numbers have been part of internal discussions).

Secret Service met early this week with security representatives on Pennsylvania Avenue, the 15-block route on which the new president will travel in the parade following his swearing-in. They said that the numbers are still unknown, but there will be expecting more people than they've ever dealt with before. The usual plans for inaugurations include shutting down several blocks around the capitol, the mall and Pennsylvania Avenue. This year, that won't cut it.

What they haven't prepared for, it seems, are the emotions of people. Inaugurations are usually happy occasions, and the euphoria following Obama's election has certainly led many more people than historically average to want to witness his swearing in and the festivities throughout the weekend. But the mall can only hold several hundred thousand spectators. The parade route can only take, at the very most, a quarter of a million. If even half of the 4 million people projected show up in Washington, intent on seeing a piece of history, the majority could be denied. And if they're stuck -- in the bitter cold -- behind security gates blocks away with thousands of people pushing behind them, the scene could easily escalate as disappointment could give way to anger.

The secret service, working with DC police, says that it will have things covered. "We've dealt with inaugurations before," a Secret Service spokesperson tells NEWSWEEK. "We're still in the planning stages on this one, but yes, we can handle what's coming."

By Michael Hirsh

In the early months of Bill Clinton’s first term as president, his White House staff treated governing like a combination dormitory bull session and frat party. It was pretty much amateur hour, and the first thing to go was discipline. But judging from the kind of people that President-elect Obama is selecting to serve as his new palace guard at the White House, his administration is going to look and feel very different—very grown up—from Day One. It’s not just that Obama’s picked a pit bull (one without lipstick) as his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. He has also chosen Gregory Craig, a tough and unrelenting legal janissary and as savvy a Washington player as you can find—as his White House counsel. And if he does as expected and names Jim Steinberg as his national security advisor (like the other two, Steinberg is an ex-Clintonite), the new president will be surrounded by disciplinarians. A master of detail as well as grand strategy, Steinberg was notable for his passionate defense of administration policies when he served as deputy national security advisor in the second Clinton administration.

There’s an emerging toughness—dare I say ruthlessness—here that feels far more Kennedy-esque than Clintonite. The discipline was evident in Obama’s own smiling shutdown of 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft’s efforts to get him to talk about his Cabinet choices over the weekend (“You’re not going to get any more out of me, Steve”). It is evident in the new ethics rules announced late last week by Transition leader John Podesta—the strictest and most comprehensive ever. By prohibiting anyone who has lobbied or registered as a lobbyist in the last 12 months from working in the policy areas on which they lobbied, the new administration is eliminating not just K-Street corporate lobbyists but “even folks at interest groups who aren’t typically part of the what’s-wrong-with-Washington story,” says Scott Thomas, a former head of the Federal Election Commission. These include some of the Obama campaign’s own advisors who worked on not-for-profit issues like human rights, environment and labor

Make no mistake: This is all the president-elect’s doing. He wanted Emanuel on board to “watch his back.” And he asked Craig to be White House counsel—though Craig might have preferred national security advisor—because he wanted to keep him close to the Oval Office as well. Craig, after all, had successfully defended Bill Clinton at his impeachment trial. (Obama’s consideration of Hillary Clinton as secretary of State might have been a factor in Craig's getting Counsel rather than NSC. Craig had fiercely attacked Sen. Clinton during the primaries for her attacks on Obama’s readiness, causing bad blood between them. But Hillary Clinton and Craig have been friends since they first met in 1969 when they started law school at Yale together.) As for Steinberg, I can say from personal experience in covering the Clinton administration’s foreign policy that he’s a guy who never, ever gives up an inch on any front, and that he always had (to my memory) a sophisticated defense ready for even some of the more questionable Clinton-era decisions. It is notable that Obama had no more dedicated foreign-policy advisor during his two-year campaign than Susan Rice, but she is apparently being shunted aside in favor of the more senior, more experienced, and certainly more ready, Steinberg.

Sure, all these guys were Clintonites themselves at the beginning. But 16 years later, they’re older, tougher and wiser. Or at least that’s what we’re hearing.

In which Newsweek provides informed rumor-mongering on the hottest names in the Obama Cabinet sweepstakes

By Michael Hirsh

Since the day after Barack Obama’s election Newsweek has run a “Transition Toteboard” giving odds (quite unscientifically derived, we must confess) on the most likely candidates for top Cabinet posts, as well as national security advisor. Up until a few days ago, based on the Beltway buzz, we had John Kerry in the lead for State, followed by an all-male trio: Bill Richardson, Richard Lugar and Richard Holbrooke (the name “Richard,” if anyone cares, comes from Old German meaning “powerful leader”). But a week or so ago another noteworthy Richard -- my Newsweek colleague Richard Wolffe -- who covered the Obama campaign, heard from his sources that we were missing a “big name.” Who could it be? we wondered. There weren’t that many big names out there. Colin Powell? Al Gore? Bill Clinton?

No, Hillary, of course. Doh! The New York senator emerged grinning from a Thursday meeting with the president-elect, and she did not even bother going through the usual motions of denying she had interest in the job, or proclaiming her love for the Senate. While as far as we know Hillary hasn’t been offered the post yet, the sudden news has a lot of heads nodding vigorously around Washington. First, putting Clinton at State would be in keeping with Obama’s Big Tent approach to governing (note his forgiving stance toward McCain ally Joe Lieberman). Second, it would solve a problem the Obama-ites (Obamians? Let’s come up with something) have been increasingly worried about: the lack of women up for major Cabinet posts. And with Bill along (a future Mideast Uber-envoy?) you’d get two secretaries of State for one. Finally it’ll keep Hillary out of the country a lot rather than inside the Beltway plotting for her comeback in 2012 or 2016.

But there are downsides: Hillary can use State as a major power base from which to undermine Obama administration policies she doesn’t agree with (does anyone doubt there’ll be a few?). And to the extent she succeeds as a diplomat, it raises her profile and lowers Obama’s. Note to John Podesta: Maybe put Hillary—and Bill too--on the Supreme Court instead?

Who’s up:

• Hillary Clinton for State (the latest evidence that Obama plans a Big Tent approach; she and her husband are also close to Vice President-elect Joe Biden)
• Chuck Hagel for State (it’s looking more and more like current Defense Secretary Bob Gates—the post Hagel was said to be under consideration for – may be asked to stay on)
•  John Brennan for director of the CIA. (The CIA veteran is leading Obama's transition team on intelligence matters but could get one of the big jobs himself. He has experience in both the agency's most important disciplines, operations and analysis)
• Joan Dempsey for a senior intelligence job, perhaps with the Office of National Intelligence (a former top official at the Defense Intelligence Agency and one of two deputies to George Tenet, Dempsey is believed to have given advice on intelligence issues to the Obama campaign. She's also one of the few women being considered for senior jobs)
• Ray Kelly for Homeland Security (the New York Police commissioner has an impressive record on crime; he ran U.S. Customs under President Clinton;, and most of those operations are now part of Homeland Security)
• William Bratton for Homeland Security (just before the election, the Los Angeles Police chief suggested Osama bin Laden "likely" wanted John McCain to become president)
• Tammy Duckworth for secretary of Veterans Administration (the disabled Iraq war vet from Illinois--also considered a leading candidate to be appointed to Obama's Senate seat – is that state’s veteran affairs chief now. She accompanied the president-elect to a wreath-laying ceremony on Veterans Day)
• Jim Hunt for Education (the former North Carolina governor made aggressive education reform his signature cause while in office; he’s particularly known for his work to boost teacher quality and improve and expand preschool education, both areas of great interest to Obama)
• Colin Powell for Education (a personal passion of the former secretary of State, who endorsed Obama shortly before the election)
• Rich Armitage for some big intel job, possibly including Director of National Intelligence (the Powell protégé and sometime McCain advisor would add even more bipartisan firepower)
• Howard Dean for Health and Human Services (a nice consolation prize for the outgoing head of the Democratic National Committee; Dean has an MD, political connections, selling power and energy. And he was thought an able administrator as governor of Vermont.)
• Tom Daschle for HHS (an early backer of Obama who became his national co-chair, the former Senate Majority leader is popular with senators on both sides of the aisle and is seen as having many of the skills needed to develop bipartisan legislation)
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Environmental Protection Agency (the longtime environmental activist – along with his cousin Caroline, a likely candidate for an ambassadorship at the least-- would add just the right touch of Camelot glamour to Obama’s Big Tent).
• Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security (currently a top candidate for attorney general, but as a Democratic governor whose state is on the Mexican border, she’d be a natural for this job too)
• Andrew Liveris for Energy (the CEO of Dow Chemical has been praised for taking an old-fashioned chemical company into the green 21st century)

Who’s down:

• John Kerry for State (once considered the top contender, he’s said to want it too bad, and some inside the Obama transition team question whether he has the management skills)
• Larry Summers for Treasury (probably still the leading candidate, but the mere floating of his name has provoked a surge of feminist pique, which could give Obama pause)
• Charles Ogletree for Attorney General (Obama’s old Harvard prof, but loyalty’s not enough)

--With Richard Wolffe, Mark Hosenball, Daniel Stone, Katie Paul, Eleanor Clift and Patrice Wingert

Barack Obama stumped early and often about the need for a high-level (even cabinet-level) post to combat global climate challenges. Who he had in mind, of course, was Al Gore, the former vice president who, after losing to George Bush in 2000, saw massive showings of public support for his work on climate issues, spurring a movement to draft Gore into the 2008 race for president.

But he couldn't be sweet-talked into government then, and he won't be now.

To put a stop to any public speculation, Gore has made clear to Obama's transition team that, while he has the utmost respect for those who serve in government, he has no plans -- and little personal interest, it seems -- to join the ranks of the Obama administration. He asserts that the momentum behind the advocacy and organizing that won the former veep an Oscar and Nobel Prize will be much easier to maintain outside of government than inside. "He has seen, first-hand that those in government can only go so far unless there’s a groundswell of public support for the bold initiatives that are really needed," Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider tells NEWSWEEK.

Gore's office confirms only that Gore and Obama have spoken prior to and since the election, and it appears that Gore could be willing to be consulted, but only in an unofficial capacity. (Obama has signaled he'd welcome any help, having promised supporters that Gore will play a central role on climate issues.) But, says Kreider, "[Gore] feels that, right now, this is the best thing for him to do with his life—to continue trying to build [private] support for the bold changes that we have to make to solve the climate crisis."

Several names have emerged from transition officials regarding the new administration's technology team. Macon Phillips, one of Obama's coordinators of New Media during the general campaign, will be leading New Media for the Obama transition. Jesse Lee will undertake Web communications, coming with experience leading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Web push in 2006.

The transition has also confirmed several other new hires for New Media. Andrew Bleeker and Dan Siroker, a former Google employee, will work under Phillips. Handling online communications will be Democratic campaign veteran Cammie Croft.

Still unclear is what specific duties the transition Web team will have, although if the momentum behind the Obama campaign's impressive use of New Media continues, much of their work is likely to be maintaining online communications and outreach to blogs and other Web forums, though certainly on a smaller scale than during the campaign.

Barack Obama has long said he wanted to pull together a bipartisan administration that followed the best policies, no matter whether they were Democratic or Republican ideas.

That may sound like the usual rhetoric of a presidential candidate and president elect. After all, both President Clinton and President Bush appointed members of the other party to Cabinet positions. Clinton named William Cohen, a retired Republican senator from Maine, to be his Defense Secretary. Bush named Norman Mineta, a former Democratic congressman from California, to be his Transportation Secretary.

By most outside measures, those Cabinet officials did not foreshadow any wider effort at bipartisan government. While both men were widely respected, their impact on White House politics was minimal. Cohen was widely seen as President Clinton’s effort to shore up his hawkish credentials; Mineta’s job was hardly influential in the broader Cabinet.

Will Obama do anything different?

According to John Podesta, the co-chair of the Obama transition, the answer is yes. While reporters were focused on lobbyist rules and speculation about new Cabinet names, Podesta dropped this nugget about the president-elect’s intentions during the first transition briefing.

“He wants to see not just Democrats in office but he’s made a pledge to ensure that we reach out and have Republicans and independents, not just at a token level,” Podesta said. “There’s sort of been a tradition of having at least one person from the other party at the beginning of an administration in the Cabinet. His commitment is to deepen that and to look even just beyond the Cabinet, to try to bring people who agree with the direction that he wants to take the country and, regardless of party, to serve in the government.”

This broadens the work and the scope of the transition enormously, opening up a swathe of jobs (by most counts, several hundred positions at the subcabinet level) to a far broader set of potential job- seekers. It also undercuts Republican accusations that the single transition job announced to date – Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff – represents some backtracking on Obama’s campaign pledge to move beyond partisan politics.

Transition officials point to another announcement underscoring their bipartisan approach to forming a new government. While Obama himself will not meet with world leaders at the G20 meetings later this week, a prominent Republican and a Democrat will do so on his behalf: Jim Leach, the former GOP congressman from Iowa, and Madeleine Albright, the former Clinton secretary of state.

By Mark Hosenball

One of the most powerful, but also most perilous, national security posts in the post 9/11 US government is the job of Homeland Security Secretary. The Secretary is responsible for running a huge department encompassing a grab bag of agencies. These include a medium-sized Navy (the U.S. Coast Guard), an elite plainclothes presidential bodyguard regiment (the U.S. Secret Service), a substantial prison system (detention facilities run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau) and massive uniformed battalions that police airports and land borders. Not to mention the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a bureau that processes citizenship applications and the department's own intelligence office. The person heading the department has sweeping powers to organize, hire and fire work forces and award giant contracts for high-tech equipment like radiation detectors and border protection sensors. But if another terrorist attack occurs inside United States borders, the Homeland Security Secretary will be among the first to face blame. The outgoing Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, is still living down his department's slow response to a non-man-made disaster, Hurricane Katrina.

Given the challenges, perhaps it's not surprising that President-Elect Obama's team is proceeding carefully when it comes to Homeland Security. Obama's transition team for Homeland Security will only meet for the first time later this week, according to a Democrat close to the Obama campaign who would speak about the decision-making only on condition of anonymity. The person reportedly heading the team is Rand Beers, a low-key former White House and State Department advisor on intelligence and counter-terrorism issues who resigned from George W. Bush's national security council staff only days before the start of the Iraq war and subsequently became a top national security advisor to Sen. John Kerry's unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign (Beers could not be reached for comment). Despite the Obama team's cautious approach to the subject, the President-Elect does have several high-profile candidates who might be interested in the the top Homeland Security post. Only a few days before the election, one of the nation's most respected cops, Los Angeles Police chief William Bratton, almost applied publicly for a top job in an Obama Administration when he co-authored an op-ed piece in the New York Daily News that suggested Osama bin Laden "likely" wanted John McCain to become president. Another esteemed police exec to whom the Obama camp could reach out is New York Police commissioner Ray Kelly, who under President Clinton ran US Customs, most of whose operations are now part of Homeland Security. Rep Jane Harman, who chairs a House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence, is also reputed to be interested in the post; Michael Sheehan, a former top federal and NYPD terrorism expert, is also being mentioned as a possible top Homeland Security appointee.

Last week, shortly after the voters gave their verdict, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence began giving President-elect Barack Obama highly classified intelligence briefings similar to the daily briefings given to a sitting president. Many intelligence officials had been anxious about the election. CIA veterans were concerned that if John McCain became president, he would proceed with a long-standing proposal he touted to further "reform" the agency by dismembering it again and building a new leaner, more secretive (and presumably less accountable) covert-action agency, which McCain himself likened to the legendary OSS of World War II. Like many of his policy positions, Obama's designs for the intelligence community are clouded in obscurity. But the president-elect is believed to be much less likely than McCain to make radical changes to an intelligence establishment, which is still trying to cope with the consequences of post-9/11 intelligence-reform legislation, which set up an "intelligence czar's" office to better coordinate the activities (and budgets) of 16 often fractious and ferociously turf-conscious intel agencies.

One reassuring signal to the CIA is the indication that Obama's transition team on intelligence matters will be led by CIA veteran John Brennan, who has experience in the agency's most important disciplines, operations (secret spying) and analysis (sorting out reliable intelligence reporting from the dubious and false). After 9/11, Brennan was chosen to head a new interagency unit, now run by the National Intelligence Director's office, which coordinates intelligence on the activities of suspected terrorists. Now known as the National Counter-Terrorism Center, this office is regarded as one of the bigger success stories to date resulting from post-9/11 intel reforms. The NCTC's current director, Michael Leiter, a former federal prosecutor and clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, is held in high regard both inside the intelligence community and among intel overseers on Capitol Hill, and may well keep his job under President Obama. Brennan himself is regarded as a possible candidate to succeed retired Air Force general Michael Hayden as CIA director; another possible candidate as new CIA director is Anthony Lake, a top Obama campaign adviser on security issues and a former national-security adviser to President Bill Clinton. Reportedly helping Brennan to run Obama's intelligence transition apparatus is Jamie Miscik, who headed the CIA's analytical operations when George Tenet was in charge of the agency.

No immediate announcements are expected regarding Obama's choices for top intelligence jobs, although sources close to Obama's campaign said that some of his advisers had begun detailed discussions of intelligence-related issues before the election. One of the intelligence jobs that Obama may have most difficulty finding the right person to fill is the top job, national intelligence director, who according to post-9/11 intelligence-reform legislation is not only supposed to manage rivalries among competing agencies but also is supposed to serve as principal intelligence adviser to the president. Some prominent politicians who have handled intelligence issues--including Rep Jane Harman, a former top House Intelligence Committee Democrat; former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Bob Graham; and former 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer--have expressed interest in the job, according to people following the Obama transition. The same sources said, however, that Obama is believed to be more interested in finding a new intel czar with extensive management or military command experience--and that an ideal candidate for the post would be a former admiral or general with more field-command experience. One person frequently mentioned as the type of person Obama would want as his intel czar is former four-star Marine general James Jones, who served as Supreme Commander of U.S. forces in Europe.

Barack Obama's secretary of state will be the point person on the president elect's campaign pledge to restore America's standing in the world. Sure, it will be important for Obama to find someone who shares his world view, but Obama appears willing to tap someone who is able to come see the world as he sees it.

Who are the contenders? Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has kept fairly quiet over the past months, which is perhaps a sign of something in the works. After endorsing Obama in January, he declined requests (including NEWSWEEK's) to talk about any specific policies in a future Obama administration. But one of Kerry's major goals—a card he often played during his own presidential bid in 2004—is his pursuit of reining in nuclear proliferation, which aligns with Obama's intent to bring national and global security. Writing on the Huffington Post, Al Giordano labeled Kerry the most "no drama" pick, which aligns with how Obama ran his campaign, and how he has signaled he'll run his administration

Add to the mix Richard Holbrooke, a Clinton appointee as UN ambassador with an impressive diplomatic resume. He was assistant secretary of state for two different regions (Asia and Europe)  under two different presidencies (Carter and Clinton) and helped, in 1995, broker the Dayton Accords, which brought peace to Bosnia. He was even considered for the top post at State in a potential Kerry Administration in 2004.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson would also come with a hefty tool belt of diplomatic credentials. A seven term congressman who preceded Holbrooke as UN ambassador, Richardson was also secretary of energy during the Clinton years, which—as he liked to emphasize  during his bid for the Democratic nomination earlier this year—means he's got experience as an executive running a department...and a state.

The choice appears to come down to Obama's planned direction: Whether he'll fill his cabinet with recycled Clinton names that come with experience in the role, or stick to the promise of change he made repeatedly during the campaign.

If the Obama administration decides to help boost the economy by investing in infrastructure and alternatives to fossil fuel, this cabinet post will increase in importance. Among those being mentioned for the head job:

• Valerie Jarrett, longtime Obama friend and adviser and one of three co-chairs of his transition project. Before joining the campaign, Jarrett was the chair of the Chicago Transit Authority for ten years ending in 2005, and served as commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development before that.
• Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, often mentioned as a possible for energy secretary has also signaled that he’s interested in transportation. Since he helped deliver Pennsylvania, he’s likely to get serious consideration.
• Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who also helped bring in a key state and was on Obama’s short list for vice president.
• Rep James Oberstar, a Democrat from Minnesota, who is also chairman of the House committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
• Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat who headed Obama’s Oregon Campaign, and has long had an interest in infrastructure and mass transit. A fan of biking to work, he’s reputed never to have applied for a Capitol parking permit.
• Jane Garvey, a former Federal Aviation Administration official during the Clinton administration, she has also served as deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, and director of Logan Airport in Boston. 
• Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who was on Obama's short list for vice president, has been mentioned as a possible contender for a number of Cabinet spots, including energy. As governor, she required all state agencies to develop "green teams" to encourage recycling and waste reduction, prevented the construction of coal-fired power plants and has actively promoted wind energy.
  

Penny Pritzker, business executive, philanthropist and Obama’s record-breaking national finance chair, seems to have the inside track for the head job at Commerce. Heiress to the Hyatt fortune (Forbes lists her as the 135th richest person in the country, with an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion ), Pritzker created Classic Residence by Hyatt, the leader in luxury housing for senior citizens, and remains its chairwoman. She also cofounded and chairs The Parking Spot, which manages off-site airport parking, and chairs TransUnion, a credit reporting agency, and Pritzker Realty Group. However, Pritzker has attracted controversy because of her stewardship of the Superior Bank of Chicago, which collapsed in 2001 after expanding into the subprime mortgage business. Pritzker, who served as chair of the bank between 1991 and 1994, and continued to serve on the board of its holding company, has stressed that she stepped down seven years before the bank’s collapse and that many of the banks problems were due to accounting errors. “My family voluntarily agreed to pay the FDIC $460 million to help defray costs incurred by the government and other losses in connection with the bank’s closure,” she says in a statement posted on the Obama campaign Website. “We did this without litigation or any allegations by federal regulators of wrongdoing. I am proud of how my family responded to this situation.”

--with Richard Wolffe

By Daniel Stone

Barack Obama doesn't seem to be wasting any time filling out the ranks of his administration. Just two days after the election, Congressman Rahm Emanuel accepted Obama's offer to be the new president's chief of staff. Beltway chatter and sources close to the president-elect suggest that Obama could be close, within a few days, to naming the top of his Treasury team, with other high level posts--Defense, State, NSA--soon to follow.

But forget (for a moment) about the lofty names being floated for top cabinet posts. What about the masses of invigorated Democrats looking for lower level roles in Washington's newest administration? Well, from the campaign that promised you change comes an all-new Website that certainly changes how scores of political appointments could be made: Change.gov.

It's Obama's official and aptly-named transition Website, run by Obama's transition headquarters in Washington. The site's cattle call for jobs is only for "non-career positions," meaning political appointments that would last only as long as Obama's job does. (Longer term, civil servant vacancies still go through the government's massive HR site.

A spokesperson for Obama's transition tells NEWSWEEK that there are thousands of positions to fill, and the Internet is the most effective way to reach out to qualified people everywhere. So now, just by inputting some basic information (name, contact and current place of employment), you can be considered to join the ranks of the Obama administration...until, and if, you get called back for a full application and round of interviews. Apparently, just because it's the Internet doesn't make the process easier. No one will divulge how the early applications will be reviewed, or how many have been received.

Whether this approach proves good or bad for making good selections is anyone's guess, but Obama's quest for change is certainly apparent in his new way of sifting out good people. And if it doesn't work, at least the domain name makes clear his intention.

Will Obama be harnessing star power for his energy department? When asked in December 2007  which Republicans he’d consider for a possible bipartisan cabinet, Obama specifically mentioned  California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s green reputation.”What [he’s] doing on climate change in California is very important and significant,” Obama told the crowd assembled for a New Hampshire town meeting. “There are things I don’t agree with him on, but he’s taken leadership on a very difficult issue and we haven’t seen that kind of leadership in Washington.” And even though Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain during the presidential race (and made fun of the "skinny" president-elect), he told a TV interviewer in July that he wouldn’t rule out joining the Obama administration to work on national energy and environmental issues. Not surprisingly, Schwarzenegger is now popping up on many people’s lists of contenders for energy secretary. Others include:

• Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who’s been successful in passing tough emission regulations as well as attracting renewable energy companies to his state. An enthusiastic backer of Hilary Clinton during the primaries, Rendell helped deliver his key state to Obama, and hasn’t been shy about mentioning the fact that he wants to be Obama’s secretary of energy or secretary of transportation. One catch: he says he doesn’t want the job until after his current term ends in 2011.
  
• Jason Grumet, Obama’s lead energy and environmental adviser, who has been with the president elect since he first arrived in Washington in 2005. Prior to that, he was the head of the National Commission on Energy Policy and the Bipartisan Policy Center.

What does the new White House chief of staff tell us about the politics of the new Obama administration?

Rahm Emanuel is known for his combative style, his expletive-laced language and his deep desire for partisan victory. As an Illinois congressman and part of the House Democratic leadership, those qualities have proved helpful in extending the Democratic majority and pushing the party's agenda.

But picking the hard-charging Emanuel—Obama's first major post-election decision—seems at odds with the consensus-minded manner of an incoming president who promises to unite red and blue America.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

After all the allusions to Camelot, is it possible that there will be no Kennedy in an Obama cabinet? While some have mentioned JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy as a possibility for Education secretary (Between 2002-2004, she led the highly successful effort to raise private funds to improve New York public schools, and currently serves as the vice chair of the Fund for Public Schools), it’s more likely that her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could end up heading the Environmental Protection Agency. RFK Jr., a longtime environmental activist, is the president of Waterkeeper Alliance and the chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, as well as the author of Crimes Against Nature. He also spent time in Washington between 1995-1996 fighting anti-environmental legislation.  Kennedy’s appointment would not be without controversy. In 1983, at the age of 30, he was arrested and later convicted for heroin possession. He was also arrested in 2001 for trespassing at a U.S. Naval training facility during a protest.

Others possibilities:

• Lisa Jackson, head of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection and co-chair of Obama’s transition group overseeing the EPA
• Her fellow co-chair, Robert Sussman, who served as the deputy administrator of the EPA during Clinton’s first term, and now is a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, which is headed by Obama transition co-chair John Podesta
• Kathleen McGinty, a longtime aide to Vice President Al Gore who created and chaired the White House Office of Environmental Policy during the Clinton years and went on to head Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection
• Mary Nichols, a former senior official at the EPA during the Clinton years who is currently the chair of the California Air Resources Board
• Dan Esty, Obama’s leading energy adviser, who also heads Yale’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy, as well as the university’s Center for Business and the Environment. Esty served in a series of senior positions in George H. W. Bush’s EPA and has written nine books, including Green to Gold, which details how corporations can use green policies to increase their productivity and profit.

UPDATE: In response to some of our comments re. Al Gore and the new administration: While insiders don't expect Gore to be interested in a cabinet position, there's some talk that if Obama creates a new position of Global Warming Czar or special envoy, Gore would be the obvious first choice.

By Daniel Stone

Within days of his election, Obama is expected to announce his choice to head the Department of the Treasury, undoubtedly the most high-profile and relevant post in the early months of the new administration. Among the favorites? Larry Summers, who had the position in the last two years of the Clinton administration. Summers' unique experience of having already done the job is a qualification, but it could also detract from Obama's mantra of change in Washington. Controversial comments he made as president of Harvard about women and the sciences, which led to his resignation of that post in 2005, could also make him undesirable. And there's also this note, with a handwritten portion that Summers wrote chummily to the late Ken Lay.

Tim Geithner, president of the New York Fed, is also the Washington buzz, as an Obama ally with the added experience of working with Wall Street. A source who speaks to Geithner regularly told NEWSWEEK that he has shown some interest in the position. (Of course with any cabinet post, if you say you want it, you won't get it). And at 47, Geithner would be a spot-on generational match for Obama, who's 48.

Robert Rubin, who sat at the helm of Treasury from 1995 to 1999 under Clinton has made it clear to his staff that while he thinks "Obama is great," he has no interest in leading the department again, especially with the undeniable turbulence ahead.

By Daniel Stone

Payback, the saying goes, can be, well, tough. And it could be Joe Lieberman's turn to be on the receiving end. Throughout the campaign, the Connecticut Senator prided himself on being a "Democrat for McCain," desperately trying to win over support from the left and the middle for the GOP candidate.

Now, Lieberman's support for McCain is pretty much irrelevant. But it's Lieberman's Democrat label that could also become a thing of the past. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid summonsed Lieberman to his Capitol Hill office early this afternoon to have, according to a senior Hill staffer, a "frank chat" with the senator. If the meeting goes as planned, this aide confirms to NEWSWEEK, Reid will only give Lieberman the equivalent of a legislative talking-to, demanding that he rally behind Obama, or at the very least, release a statement of support for the president-elect. But if it turns tense or combative, Reid could deny admission to the Democratic caucus, even strip away Lieberman's valuable chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "I doubt that will happen," this aide says, "unless the meeting goes really bad."

Lieberman was part of the Democrats hope for the future once upon a time when he ran with Al Gore against Bush-Cheney in 2000. But it was the near-loss of his senate seat in 2004 that almost spelled the ultimate political defeat for Lieberman. He lost the primary to fellow Democrat Ned Lamont, but squeaked out a win by running as an independent.

As one of two senate independents (the other is Bernie Sanders of Vermont), Lieberman chose to still caucus with the Democrats. And the party needed him. With just 50 seats, the Democrats clamored over the Lieberman's affection for a prized 51 seat majority. The Republicans did too, to ensure that the Democrats didn't get it.

But when John McCain threw his hat into the ring for the White House in 2006, Lieberman swung right. He didn't only endorse McCain, he traveled with the GOP hopeful on his campaign plane and spoke at the candidate's rallies and stump speeches--often with harsh criticisms of Obama.

So as the Democrats take firm control of both houses of congress (54 seats in the senate, at last count), Lieberman might be the first to go. Must be tough to realize how few friends a guy's got in Washington.

--With Richard Wolffe

With the looming reauthorization of President Bush’s controversial No Child Left Behind legislation, longtime education watchers expect Obama to choose a secretary of education who has both expertise in education reform and proven political skills to negotiate between competing interests. That seems to give the inside track to Democrat Jim Hunt, the former four-term North Carolina governor who made aggressive education reform his signature cause while in office. Hunt is particularly known for his work to boost teacher quality, and improve and expand preschool education, both areas in which Obama has expressed particular interest.

The likeliest Republican: Tom Kean, former governor of New Jersey, former president of Drew University, and chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Other oft-mentioned names: Democrat Tim Kaine, the current governor of Virginia, who made Obama’s short list for vice president, and Democrat Roy Romer, former governor of Colorado and former superintendent of the Los Angeles public school system. Outside the box possibilities might include Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, who has been notably successful in attracting and graduating minority students in highly demanding college programs, and Kati Haycock, the head of Education Trust, a nonpartisan powerhouse pushing for bold education reforms.

 By Daniel Stone

And the transition is off. A day after winning the presidency, Barack Obama is getting down to the business of assembling his staff. First up, the position of chief of staff,  which the president elect has reportedly offered to Rahm Emanuel, who is expected to accept.

The four-term congressman certainly has a high profile in Washington. Known for being a tough and pit bull-like figure, it was Emanuel who helped orchestrate the 2006 Democratic takeover of Congress. Even before Obama's victory was certain, rumors had swirled that Obama would tap Emanuel to head the West Wing. And for good reason. With all his toughness -- a quality that Obama has promised in his administration -- Emanuel has shown a record of brokering difficult deals. He played an important policy role beside President Clinton, earning favor with the former president. But he also showed loyalty to Obama, as a fellow Illinois Democrat, and got behind the senator's campaign from the beginning.

Back when Obama was duking it out with Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party leaders suspected that Emmanuel would be called in to broker a deal between the two -- not just over personal differences, but also to encourage the one who was straggling (at the time, Hillary) to make a graceful exit early on. NEWSWEEK reported at the time, under the headline "Come, O Come, Emanuel," that the congressman would be called on to have the "difficult talk" with Hillary Clinton, reminding her that a drawn-out nomination process would spell defeat for Democrats in November.The process was drawn out, and early fears of a divided party ended up being irrelevant, but it certainly boosted the congressman's profile.

Emanuel's first task will be to help the new president craft his cabinet. And since Obama has emphasized his intention to delegate tough problems to the people in his administration who are most knowledgeable and well-placed to help solve them, finding solutions to the core challenges -- the economy, health care, energy policy -- could fall more on top staff than on the executive himself.