A few short hits today, as I try to catch up on the news.

Let’s start with word last week that Obama plans to appoint Samantha Power to serve as Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs in the National Security Council.  To no one’s surprise, the MSM focused not on her abilities or scholarship, but on “monstergate,” the moment last year when Power’s criticism of Hillary went a little over the top.

That’s too bad, because Power brings an impressive resume to an important job.  The Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs, no matter what the usually brilliant Charlie over at Abu Muqawama may believe, is a crucial job, particularly in an administration dedicated to reversing the Bush Administration’s disastrous unilateralism.  Power will oversee a portfolio that includes not only U.S.-UN relations, but also human rights, democracy, humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, and refugees.  It’s a big job, as demonstrated by the fact that past Administrations have appointed similarly senior people (Mort Halperin, Eric Schwartz, and Elliott Abrams — who, no matter how despicable you may find him, was a key player during his time at NSC).

I have a passing acquaintance with Power — she served on (and contributed to) the foreign policy team I co-directed for the Kerry campaign — but I don’t know her well.  She is, by any measurement, an impressive and important thinker, and deserves to be taken much more seriously than the gossipy coverage she’s gotten over the past year.  Her most recent books are A Problem from Hell, which is a history of U.S. policy toward genocide (and which won the Pulitzer Prize)  and Chasing the Flame, which is a biography of Sergio Vielo de Mello, who died in the bombing of the UN compound in Iraq.  She has headed the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard and has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker.

Power is one of the few academics out there who can bring experience working on both the U.S.-U.N. relations and U.S. human rights policy.  Most importantly of all, she’s close to Obama, having served as one of his earliest foreign policy advisors.  In fact, her decision to take a leave of absence from Harvard to work in Obama’s Senate office was for me an early sign that he was thinking beyond the Senate.

You can count on her to play an important role in reversing Bush-era policies, from Guantanamo to torture to Boltonist views of the U.N.

Much of the press coverage has breathlessly suggested that Power will have “close contact and potential travel with Clinton.”  Uh, no.  In all fairness to Power, her new position is not that high up the food chain.  Hillary will deal with James Jones, Power’s boss’s boss, not Power.  Her counterparts at State will be the Assistant Secretaries for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL); Population, Refugees and Migration; and International Organization Affairs.  She’ll also liaise with USAID and those sections of State and DOD that work on peacekeeping issues.  She may be in meetings with Clinton, and may from time to time brief her.  But even if Power is on the plane, she’s likely to be one of many, not one-on-one with Clinton.

And speaking of DRL, Power’s appointment to the NSC takes out of the running the most obvious candidate to lead my old bureau.  From what I hear, there are currently three serious candidates, two from the human rights community and one from a think tank.  No word on when one of them will get the nod.

Related posts

• Transition Watch: Anger in the Ranks
• The Other Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
• The Human Rights Secretary of State?
• The Fake Controversy over Samantha Power
• Some Thoughts on Obama’s Speech