Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 8:56 PM
Sources tell Madam Secretary that all is not well on the 7th floor of Foggy Bottom, where Secretary Clinton has her suite. The culprit? Office space.
Bill Burns, State's widely admired No. 3, has been bumped from his offices to make way for Jacob Lew, one of Hillary's two new deputies, sources say. Lew, who was director of the OMB in the Clinton White House, has been tasked with getting State more cash.
Proximity to the Secretary is everything on the 7th floor of the State Department building, and we hear that the much-respected Burns, the under secretary for political affairs (or "P"), and his staff have been bumped from the relatively central office suite normally reserved for P and unceremoniously reassigned to the less-desirable "G" suites down the hall. The folks in the G offices (normally for the under secretary for global affairs) are apparently being bumped even farther down the hall to the "R" offices, normally occupied by the under secretary for public diplomacy. Where the R folks are going is anyone's guess, but it's presumably the far-from-coveted 6th floor -- hardly a good message to send about the importance of public diplomacy under a new administration.
We hear rank-and-file foreign service officers (FSOs) are none too happy with the move, which is considered a slight to Burns, a career diplomat who is the highest-ranking FSO in the country. One former government employee with good contacts at State put it to MS this way:
Most comments I've heard thus far about reaction in the building aren't quite suitable for print. But I think it can be summed up with a supremely cynical "oh, so THAT's how they're going to treat us." But can share one good reaction: "forget hopes Hilary will work out at State....we're right back to the worst of the Albright days, only with bigger egos."
Give it a break folks. Bill Burns is not concerned about his office space based on people I have talked to. What people really care about is can Jack Lew deliever the resources hoped for. If he can there is reason to rejoice. If he can't, there are more important things to worry about then just office space -- like getting the job done.
These people need to get busy if this is all they have time for! Most of the country is just happy to have a job right now.
is this site a pro-Hillary site or a way to slip in digs at her?...because this sounds like nonsense...time for everyone to grow up and act like adults...
Just where did everyone think these new guys were going to be housed . . . down the street somewhere?! I can empathize with feeling slighted - somewhat - but don't really get the "one good reaction." Obviously this person wasn't one of the approximately one thousand cheering employees that greeted her last Thursday.
I've noticed a disturbing trend
Carolyn O'Hara's posts tend toward gossipy, anti-Hillary silliness. This might be the worst one yet. I wonder if these "sources" are the ones who said Hillary referred to herself and Bill in the third person when speaking to Cornryn (like that makes any sense).
Wonder if that David Rodearmel who filed that frivolous suit through Judicial Watch is the source for this crap.
PYW...hmmm, a disturbing anti-Hillary trend...well, if that is the case I won't waste my time stopping by because I, for one, am sick of people attacking Hillary...
I am sick of the sniping and snark and old, tired anti-Hillary narrative...you know, like the passe nonsense one hears from Maureen Dowdie, Quinn, A Mitchell, all those tired old women who can only observe Hillary from afar as Hill opens up another positive and substantive chapter in her life and promoting good works on the world stage...
...the old biddies are left in her shadow and jealous of her...and you can include that younger Mary Katherine Yam too...
what a waste of time...
Carolyn O'Hara --- yyyaaaawwwwwnnnnnn!
Carolyn sounds like someone who needs to find a job somewhere else. People like her often are not productive workers, aren't liked by their co-workers, and are often prone to being dishonest.
I am sick of the sniping and snark and old, tired anti-Hillary narrative too --- many call it CDS or HDS (Clinton Derangement Syndrome, or Hillary Derangement Syndrome, respectively), and like all mental illnesses, it says more about the person spewing it than it does about Hillary or Bill. Most normal people see that and that's why Hillary got the most votes in the primaries.
It's refreshing to see former CDS people get beyond it and grow to be better human beings. Unforturnately, boring Carolyn and Rodearmel aren't among them.
Excuse me, is Maureen Dowdy on the 7th floor anywhere?...
I wonder whether Mo Do's vitriolic pen is seen around the 7th floor these days taking orders for champagne and caviar for those ever-so-touchy, sensitive bureaucrats who feel that moving down a floor in the building robs them of inherited esteem and political vigor! Ye Zeus, the dear boys should be delighted to hang on to their jobs these days....
It's a new regime, give them a chance to get the job done and get the Department some much-needed dough (donuts from MoDo, you don't touch!)....
Hillary has the world on her plate now....so negotiate some Peace for the poor woman, and let the little whiney boys with fat egos go on Jenny Craig's Low-Ego Diet!
The ship of state could be sinking and the boys insist on singing "I'm so Vain"!...P-l-e-a-s-e!..Go to Work. And pray for the rest of us.
I was just starting to like this blog
This is reminding me of the mysterious "sources" who overheard HRC say "The Clintons Never Forget". That post made it over to Politico where it Cornyn scoffed it off as total nonsense.
Madame Secretary needs to figure out what it's POV is pretty soon - there are two kinds of people "obsessed" with Hillary. I don't care for the ones who are negatively obsessed with her.
I also suspect the "former government employee" quoted in the post is a Republican. Notice the only negative mentions of secretarys of state are Hillary and Albright, both Dem appointees.
For those of you who are wondering about the tone of the original post here -- This blog is apparently run by Obama supporters who were anti-Hillary during the primaries. Are the pieces falling into place yet? They are giving us the *official* "Admin. spin" -- complete with snide, patronizing remarks about "egos" and such.
My advice -- which I have stated before -- is for hardcore Hillaryites to maintain a high-profile presence here and keep this blog honest. Don't let these folks pretend to be "pro-Hillary" while they make insinuations about her. Call them on their cattiness every single time.
Spot on! For those of us who want a TRUE SoS HRC blog, let's not turn away because of some who want to tarnish it.
Thanks for the clarification, NYCgirl. Good to know.
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