Hill Or High Water

So where the heck was Hillary Clinton last night, anyway?  Turns out she couldn't be at the Democratic National Convention for a reason:  technically, it's illegal for the Secretary Of State to be at a party convention.

Federal law -- the Hatch Act of 1939, amended by Congress in 1993 -- specifically prohibits secretaries of state from attending political conventions, and the State Department's own ethics guidelines also rule out political activity.

A senior administration official, speaking on background because the official is not authorized to speak on the record, told CNN, "The law carved out the State Department as having a unique position in the government in that foreign policy, by its nature, must remain nonpartisan/apolitical."

"So State Department officials -- specifically those who are presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate (i.e. the secretary) -- are far more restricted than, say, someone who works at the Education Department."

When Condoleezza Rice was President George W. Bush's Secretary of State, she did not attend the Republican National Convention. Now that she's a private citizen, however, she did take part in last week's RNC, delivering a speech on foreign policy.

So no, even with her husband there, the Secretary of State cannot by law be a partisan at a purely political function. Surely the party conventions qualify as such.  However, other cabinet members from other, smaller departments are given a "look the other way" pass as long as they are not technically using their cabinet title.  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke as the former Governor of Kansas, for instance.

But the big guns, Sec State, AG, Treasury, Defense...no dice.  So no, it would have been highly unusual for Hillary Clinton to have been there speaking.  Not to mention the GOP House would have done crazy nonsense like "Flown back to Washington in order to impeach Hillary under the Hatch Act" or something.  So, there's that.

We'll see.