State Department Whispers
19 October 2009 3:11 pm by Taylor Marsh
… [...] We’re hearing complaints even from members of the inner circle that the overworked Mills — chief of staff, counselor, overseer of Haiti policy and food security policy and the department motor pool (okay, not really) — has made entry to Clinton’s suite something like penetrating the Green Zone in Baghdad. – Al Kamen
Because political writing is hardly all substance and policy, for Monday midday, a little dish.
Rebutting Kamen’s article, Laura Rozen has the push back from another anonymous source, this one described as “a policy staffer who was aligned with Obama’s campaign and is not part of HRC’s inner circle.” The whole statement is laudatory of Clinton on the issue of engagement, with the summation reading: “… There are other, valid criticisms of the Secretary. Contending that she is a remote figure who has walled off the people working for her at State is unfounded and absurd.”
Ben Smith offers more on Mills, with rumblings that her gatekeeping is overbearing. As Ben reports:
Mills has shaped a State-Department-as-Hillaryland, where political staffers are loyal to the Secretary, and where I can’t think of a single appointee who supported Obama during the campaign. But the power remains in the White House, and the result has been, some Clinton backers worry, a certain marginalization.
The only complaint I have about Ms. Mills is that she’s been inaccessible, as far as my experience goes. The last thing I expected was that she wouldn’t even bother returning my emails. Having reached out to her not long after I arrived in D.C., as we only met very briefly during the primary season as I passed through Clinton quarters, she was gracious then, though we hardly had time to chat. However difficult schedules remain to coordinate, the opposite has been the case for other top Clinton allies, including Philippe Reines, as well as Howard Wolfson (who didn’t go with Clinton to State), including even Secretary Clinton, who remains gracious and engaging. Granted, Ms. Mills might not have time for a cocktail, which is fine, but it sure sounds like she could use one.
