Apparently, Article One, Section Six states:
"No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office."
I had to look up that big word there, "emoluments." It simply means compensation. What this clause means is that Hillary can't become Secretary of State if the compensation is higher than what she's currently getting as a Senator if she, as a Senator, had voted for a pay raise for the Secretary of State.
Now, this is not the first time it's happened. And the way presidents like Nixon, Carter, and Clinton have gotten around it is by having Congress pass a law reducing the pay of the particular cabinet office so that the appointee actually takes a pay cut, and the lawmaker appointed to the job would get no benefit from the pay the job offers even if he had earlier voted for a pay increase for that position.
Well, with him being a constitutional scholar, it would seem a bit expedient for Obama to take this path. Not only that, it would smack as "politics as usual" where Washington insiders reward each other, regardless of the law. He promised a change from all that stuff. I don't see a large distinction between that sort of maneuver and the way Tom DeLay rolled out the red carpet for lobbyists.
If she wants this job, I think Hillary needs to resign from the Senate today. There's nothing in the Constitution that prohibits a former member of either house of Congress becoming an appointee to a president's cabinet.
(h/t Sullivan)
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