The morning line, Nov. 30, 2008

It appears that on Monday, Hillary Clinton will really, officially, be named secretary of State. [Associated Press Politico] As part of the agreement, former President Clinton will reveal 200,000 donors to his foundation and presidential library, the Washington Post reports, and allow the State Department and White House to vet his business interests and speeches to avoid conflicts of interest.

The New York Times elaborates on the agreement, reporting that President Clinton has agreed to stop accepting contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative from foreign governments.

The announcement of Hillary Clinton as secretary of State will occur at a news conference at 10:40 a.m. Monday in Chicago, Politico reports. At that news conference, Obama will announce his national security team, which will include retaining Defense Secretary Robert Gates and appointing retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser.

Politico mentions becoming44.org in an in-depth look at the apparent conflict with Obama's ethics policy that would be presented if former Senate Majority Leader and current Alston + Bird healthcare consultant Tom Daschle were appointed secretary of Health and Human Services.

Here are a couple of interesting nuggets from the story. First, Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter says, "We are still in the process of structuring the ethics rules for an Obama administration." That might come as news to those who read the "

The Obama-Biden Plan "under the Ethics section of Obama's change.gov Web site. Also, Cutter says, the rules will "require recusal from any regulation or issue at Alston that he actually worked on." As we discussed in a previous post on this subject, Daschle's work at HHS would affect almost all healthcare regulations and Alston's practice appears to affect about every segment of the healthcare industry.

Huffington Post includes a lengthy piece warning, "Obama's team includes dangerous biotech 'Yes Men.'" The Washington Post has a rundown on the last-minute rules the Bush administration is pushing through. Many are predictable, almost givens, like reducing constraints on "environmentally damaging oil shale development throughout the West."

But in light of current events, some still manage to surprise. Consider this one: Three days after the election, the White House approved rules requiring lenders to provide buyers with a simplified summary of their obligations. But, industry complained, and "as a result, HUD dropped a proposal that settlement agents read a 'closing script' as they complete a transaction."

Politico has a piece on three Donilons who appear in line for administration jobs. The most controversial of these is likely to be Tom Donilon, a favorite for deputy national security adviser.

While at Fannie Mae in the first part of this decade, Donilon oversaw a "lobbying campaign by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to undermine the credibility of a probe into the firm's accounting irregularities," ABC reported earlier this month, not long after the federal government anted up $200 billion to bail out Fannie Mae and sister-lender Freddie Mac.

The Politico piece treats this episode of Donilon's career diplomatically: "Cementing his Washington insider status, he also spent time as a vice president at Fannie Mae."