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November 27, 2007, 2:39 pm

Hillary's Clinton Secret Weapon: Colin Powell?

Source: NYTimes

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has been talking for some time now about how, if she is elected president, she will ask both Democratic and Republican statesmen to hit the road on her behalf to declare that "bipartisan foreign policy is back" in post-George W. Bush America.

While Mrs. Clinton has pointed to her husband as an emissary, it has been unclear for some time which Republicans she had in mind. But in South Carolina today, speaking to a group of black ministers, Mrs. Clinton dropped a name publicly that she has hinted at privately before.

"I won't even wait until I'm inaugurated, but as soon as I'm elected I'm going to be asking distinguished Americans of both parties — people like Colin Powell, for example, and others — who can represent our country well, including someone I know very well," Mrs. Clinton said, according to a Fox News Web report. "Because I want to send a message heard across the world. The era of cowboy diplomacy is over."

Would Mr. Powell be willing to carry water for Mrs. Clinton, and not-so-subtly rebuke Mr. Bush in the process? While Mr. Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the start of the Clinton administration, and served as a negotiator in Haiti for Mr. Clinton, there is no evidence that he is interested in serving Mrs. Clinton.

And how will anti-war Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere feel about Mrs. Clinton's suggestion that she wants one of the architects of the Iraq war to serve as a goodwill ambassador?

Mr. Powell's assistant said he was out of the office today but had seen the news report from South Carolina. "He's not been in touch with Senator Clinton in regards to this, and has no comment," said his assistant, Peggy Cifrino.