Rendell: Hillary Clinton's different rules

by Josh Drobnyk

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell today reiterated his pledge to stay in Harrisburg until 2011, saying that public officials make "an implied promise" to serve out their terms when they seek election.

So does the same go for, say, a certain senator from New York, who could well be offered the chance to leave her job mid-term? Rendell was asked.

Not quite, he responded.

"I think the senators don't have the type of executive responsibility that a governor has," Rendell said. "You are electing a governor or mayor to run things. I don't mean to demean what senators do, but it is pretty easy to raise your right hand or press that button to vote. It is a little different than running the state or running the city."

Rendell, for the record, said Sen. Hillary Clinton would "be good for any job out there in the field of government or politics."

"If it is New York's loss in one sense, because she has been a great senator, New York will gain because of the things she will do to repair this country's relationship with the world," he said.

He said he has yet to talk with Clinton about her potential appointment as secretary of state, but that she plans to come to the late Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's memorial at the end of the week.He said the two were close friends. Knoll died last week at 78 after a four-month bout with cancer.