Envoy Envy? Dust Off That Portfolio.

If only Sarah Palin had been so careful.

No Pay Raise for Clinton?

Looks like the "Saxbe Fix" is in. Congress appears set to circumvent the "emoluments clause" of the Constitution and allow Clinton to be secretary of state. The clause, as we noted two weeks ago, says that no member of Congress shall be named to any office "the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during his term." This applies, we're advised, whether the member actually voted on the raises or not. Clinton was in the Senate when Cabinet officers recently received a pay raise.

The Senate is working on a bill reducing the pay for secretary of state to where it was before the raise. (The most famous instance, in 1973, reduced the pay for attorney general so Sen. William Saxbe (R-Ohio) could take the job.)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that she'd go along. "There is precedent for how to address this issue and Congress will act if necessary," Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly told Talking Points Memo.

Well, there may be precedent, but the Constitution could not be clearer.

Moving In

Just two days after being named national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones -- who we wrongly demoted yesterday to major -- is assembling his top staff. He is said to have tapped three foreign policy minds to serve as senior deputies: Mark W. Lippert, an Iraq war veteran and senior foreign policy adviser to Obama; Denis McDonough, a former Capitol Hill aide who was a foreign policy adviser to Obama and helped plan the candidate's foreign trip during the summer; and Rexon Y. Ryu, senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).

Correction

A chart yesterday should have noted that incoming White House counsel Gregory Craig and economic recovery board staff director Austen Goolsbee worked on the Obama campaign.

With Philip Rucker