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'A-Student' Hillary Aces Her Senate Hearing

Forget Geithner, it's Clinton who's queen of the 'hot nerds': Dowd

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 14, 2009 8:07 AM CST

(Newser) – Hillary Clinton breezed through her Senate confirmation hearing yesterday, writes Maureen Dowd, "performing as the A-student she always is" on topics from nuclear proliferation to governance in the Arctic. While Tim Geithner got caught up in controversy over back taxes, Hillary charmed the windy John Kerry and buttered the skeptical Dick Lugar. For the New York Times columnist, it looks as if Clinton, and not Geithner, could be the Obama Cabinet's real "hot nerd."

Only David Vitter, the Louisiana senator entangled with the DC Madam, dared to challenge Hillary—and she quickly batted him away. The new secretary of State "will easily intimidate the world’s dictators," says Dowd, "just as she often intimidated Obama in the primaries." But it remains to be seen whether she can drop her grudges against those who deserted her for Obama, and "manage Foggy Bottom better than she managed her foggy campaign."

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Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton gives Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. a kiss in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, as Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. look on. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a question on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, during her hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., hugs Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, as he introduced her to the Senate Foreign Relations... (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, smiles at her daughter Chelsea on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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Obama thinks he can pull out—like a diamond from carbon—the sparkling side of the Clintons that makes them exceptional public servants, extracting it from the gray side that makes them tacky, greedy, opportunistic and ethically shady. -

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'A-Student' Hillary Aces Her Senate Hearing