Senate plans to slash salary so Clinton is eligible for post

The fix is apparently in - to help Hillary Clinton skirt a nettlesome constitutional provision and clear her path to become secretary of state.

The clause says that no member of Congress can be named to any office whose pay was raised during his or her term. In January, while Clinton was the junior US senator from New York, the salary for secretary of state was raised from $186,600 to $191,300.

The Senate is working on a bill to rescind the raise - a strategy also used in 1973 so that Senator William Saxbe, an Ohio Republican, could become attorney general. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, through a spokesman, said this week that she would go along.

Some bloggers and anti-Clinton groups have been pressing the case that the constitutional clause makes her ineligible for the post.

"And aside from the constitutional issue, Hillary Clinton's long track record of corruption makes her a terrible choice to serve as the nation's top diplomat," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement this week.

The Wall Street Journal weighed in on the issue with an editorial yesterday that was somewhat more forgiving.

"To our knowledge, Senator Clinton played no role in the salary raise, and she clearly had grander ambitions than Secretary of State when the law was signed. But while the issue will strike some as trivial, it is no small matter to ignore the Constitution's direct words. Giving Mrs. Clinton a pay cut is a minimum gesture of deference required to the document that Mr. Obama will soon swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend," it said.

GLOBE STAFF

Senator withdraws 650 ballot challenges in recount
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican, said yesterday he is withdrawing 650 ballot challenges that his campaign lodged in the US Senate recount.

The incumbent's move surpasses one made by his opponent, Democrat Al Franken, who withdrew 633 of his challenges on Wednesday. Thousands of challenges remain, and they could be pivotal in a race that Coleman was leading by 316 votes in the latest count.

A lawyer for Coleman said the campaign is likely to withdraw more challenges, but would prefer to do it under terms agreed to with the Franken campaign.

A lawyer for Franken said both sides should be able to withdraw challenges independently. Meanwhile, the state canvassing board scheduled a meeting for Dec. 12 to consider options for absentee ballots wrongly rejected.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Fla. legislator hangs up on Obama during 'prank' calls
A Florida congresswoman hung up, twice, on President-elect Barack Obama, thinking he was a prankster.

Now she probably wishes she could hang up on angry constituents who think she purposely snubbed the next leader of the free world.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, said yesterday that she and Obama had a good laugh after she apologized profusely.

She said Obama called Wednesday to congratulate her on her reelection, saying he was looking forward to working with her as the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs committee.

But she assumed it was a radio station prank. Typically, when high-ranking officials call, an aide calls in advance to verify.

"But this one was just out of the blue he's calling me. And I said, 'Boy, you're a much better impersonator than that guy on Saturday Night Live,' and he's laughing and he's thinking I'm kidding," she said.

A few minutes later, Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, called the congresswoman with Obama on the line to tell her it wasn't a joke. "I said I really do appreciate it. I love these pranks more than anybody and I'm honored that you would prank me, but I'm gonna hang up."

And she did.

It took a call from Representative Howard Berman, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to persuade Ros-Lehtinen that Obama wanted to talk to her. She asked Berman to tell her an inside joke about a colleague that only they would know to make sure the phone call was legitimate. When Obama called back, Ros-Lehtinen said they talked about policies on Cuba and Israel.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RNC chairman celebrates senator's win in Georgia
When your party gets shellacked at the polls, you look for any sign of hope.

So Mike Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is trying to make the most of Saxby Chambliss winning reelection to his Senate seat in Georgia in a Tuesday runoff.

"Georgians refuted any notion that the ideology of the country has shifted to the left," Duncan wrote in an opinion piece for Politico, released by the RNC yesterday.

FOON RHEE