According to an Associated Press/Chicago Tribune report, Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., "may once again be in consideration" as a replacement for Secretary of State Warren Christopher. But Hamilton said last Saturday he had not been contacted by the White House about the position. "My name has been in some of the news speculation," he said. "But I have no reason to think my name is under consideration."
Indiana Democratic chairman Joe Andrew thinks otherwise. Representatives of the Democratic National Committee called Andrew about the political ramifications of Hamilton's potential selection, according to the AP/Tribune report. Andrew said the people who contacted him from the DNC did not say they were acting at the behest of the White House. Andrew also said he had had no contact with the White House or with Hamilton, but still contended he had "every reason to believe" Hamilton was a serious candidate.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported today that the The Washington "parlor game" of trying to guess Christopher's successor "continues on the aging Boeing 707" that carries Christopher, his aides and his press entourage. The group of officials and press traveling with Christopher is "probably as much in the dark" as anyone else about the next Secretary of State, the Post acknowledged.
The conventional wisdom still holds that the top candidates are ex-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Me., United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright and Bosnia negotiator Richard Holbrooke. A dark horse and the sentimental choice of some foreign service officers who would like to see one of their own promoted is recently retired Moscow Ambassador Thomas Pickering.
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