Debt

I retain high hopes for Hillary Clinton's tenure at the State Department, which badly needs revitalization. But I remain worried about the lingering distraction of her campaign debt. At minimum, it seems tacky that she's still holding a lottery for a day with Bill, a trip to the American Idol, and time hanging out in the District with James Carville and Paul Begala (which would only be remotely fun if Carville went around calling everything "Cajun-style" like he did during his "30 Rock" guest appearance). I'm sure the Clintons don't want to eat $6 million in old campaign debt. I wouldn't either. But increasingly, I'm thinking they should.

They have the money, and the capacity to make it back quickly if they want to. The Clintons loaned some of their own money to the campaign in the first place, and it's not necessarily reasonable for them to have assumed that they would get it back. The debt remains an undignified side show, especially since most of the money is owed to Clinton's gloriously incompetent pollster, Mark Penn. Hillary Clinton ought to be leaving pollsters, and campaign debts, and the embarrassment of auctioning off her husband behind. She has, after all, most interesting sideshows to deal with. There are pirates, and great power shifts, and a department to rebuild.

Clinton did a fairly ego-less thing by taking the Secretary of State job. It'll hurt more to eat the $6 million. But it's the right thing for her to do at this point.