Roll Call: Daschle to head HHS
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has asked former U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle to be the next health secretary, Roll Call reported Wednesday.
The report is the latest in a constant stream of speculation on how Obama will build his Cabinet.
Roll Call quoted unidentified sources as saying Daschle has accepted the offer.
CNN reported Daschle wanted the health post and also to be the White House health "czar" -- the incoming administration's point person on healthcare issues -- guaranteeing Daschle will be writing the healthcare reform bill Obama submits to Congress.
Daschle was ousted from his South Dakota Senate seat in 2004 and is currently a special policy adviser for the law firm Alston & Bird, a visiting professor at Georgetown and distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Report: Bill Clinton offers concessions
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is offering concessions to enable the selection of his wife as the next U.S. secretary of state, sources say.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is reportedly on U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's short list of choices for the post but her husband has allegedly resisted demands by transition team members to vet his post-presidential activities for possible conflicts of interest and ethical lapses, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Now, however, Democrats close to the negotiations have told the newspaper that the former president is softening his position. For instance, he has reportedly agreed to release the names of some of the major donors to his charitable foundation and would subject its activities and paid speeches to an ethics review.
The Times said Clinton would hand off the day-to-day responsibilities of his William J. Clinton Foundation to someone else. The foundation includes both his presidential library and the Clinton Global Initiative, an effort that seeks to bring together foreign leaders to address major world challenges.
Speculation has been heavy that Obama would tap Hillary Clinton as secretary of state after meeting with her last week in Chicago.
Critics: Too many 'Clintonistas' get posts
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Critics from the right and left say too many of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's choices for top administration posts thus far are Clinton-era retreads.
In fact, more than half of the people named so far to Obama's transition or staff posts have ties to former U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration, CNN reported Wednesday. That has brought out critics who say the choices belie Obama's promises of change.
"I think several individuals are very frustrated to think that President-elect Obama may just cut and paste from some of the Democratic operatives from the Clinton administration and put them into his White House," Leslie Sanchez, a Republican strategist, told CNN.
Meanwhile, liberal author Robert Kuttner told the broadcaster, "It's not as if the only competent people who ever served in government or who are capable are serving in government are veterans of the Clinton administration, so (Obama's) got to be careful how many Clintonistas he appoints to top-level government posts."
But Lanny Davis, Clinton's former special council, says it's not people but policies that will determine real change.
"(Americans) don't care about whether somebody who fills a particular box is from a prior administration," he told CNN.
Mayor apologizes for Obama death chant
REXBURG, Idaho, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The mayor of an Idaho town where children on a school bus chanted "assassinate Obama" says he's "extremely sorry" for the incident.
In a letter published Wednesday in the Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise, Rexburg, Idaho, Mayor Shawn Larsen said the national publicity generated by the story resulted in "numerous e-mails from individuals around the country associating our community with hate and intolerance.
"I am extremely sorry that this incident occurred, and I do not believe that it reflects the values which make our community a great place to live and raise a family."
Larsen admitted Rexburg and the surrounding areas of eastern Idaho have a reputation as being one of the United States' most politically conservative areas.
"This reputation and the conservative nature of our community should in no unequivocal terms be an excuse for hate and vile comments," Larsen wrote. "Parents must realize that things said in anger or even in jest can have lasting repercussions not only damaging young hearts and minds, but a city's reputation."
Senate race recount under way in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Minnesota officials say the recount has started in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken.
Minnesota has nearly 3 million ballots that will have to be gone over one at a time in order to determine the winner.
The Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis said Wednesday that the recount will be conducted at more than 100 sites around the state.
The recount was ordered after the initial count gave Coleman the lead by 215 votes, which translates to a margin-of-victory that was too narrow to be declared official under state law, the newspaper said.
The Minnesota recount began a day after U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, narrowly lost in his bid for re-election. That gives the Democrats a 58-seat bloc in the Senate, two short of a filibuster-proof 60 seats. A U.S. Senate seat in Georgia is also still up for grabs. it is to be determined in a run-off Dec. 2.
Iraq, Turkey, U.S. to address PKK issue
BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Iraq, Turkey and the United States have banded together to try to end attacks on Turkey by Kurdish rebels operating from Iraq, officials say.
Representatives of the three countries have formed a committee working on how best to stop raids by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, Iraqi officials told CNN Wednesday.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the PKK, which has been branded as a terrorist organization, poses security threats to both sides of the Iraq-Turkey border and said the new committee will combat the threat by "creating deterrent measures to stop any possible activities by this organization inside Iraqi territory or within the Iraqi-Turkish border areas," the broadcaster reported.
Turkey has said it doesn't believe Baghdad is doing enough to confront the PKK and has launched cross-border airstrikes and shelled PKK targets in northern Iraq in recent months.
