According to Chris Matthews, Hillary Clinton doesn’t work for Barack Obama. He might have named her Secretary of State, but she’s not his “employee” and doesn’t see herself taking orders from him.  Instead, she “thinks originally” about messages to be sent abroad,  and Hillary and Bill are “coalition partners” with the president. Matthews made his comment to Pat Buchanan in the course of discussing Hillary’s trip to Mexico, where she blamed American drug demand for the drug-gang violence south of the border.

CHRIS MATTHEWS:  She sees her ability and her sway to be much larger than simply taking orders from the president. It’s to go out there and think originally about the messages she should be sending, and here she was with Andrea Mitchell, our colleague, taking–you don’t hear the typical Secretary of State talking about the drug problem in this country, the gun problem in this country.  What do you make of her, in her great sense of her portfolio as Secretary of State here?

PAT BUCHANAN: I think she’s much larger than a traditional Secretary of State. Frankly, in his first days Colin Powell was there, but Jim Baker wasn’t this.  She is a world celebrity, and she is a presidential candidate, almost won the nomination, and everyone, she goes around the world, people look at her in awe, and that can be an asset for the United States, and she’s got a –

MATTHEWS: I also think the Clintons are coalition partners with Obama, very much like the Israeli cabinet. It’s like Ehud Barak coming in.

BUCHANAN: Right.

MATTHEWS: The Clintons are coalition partners. Domestically and foreign-policy wise.  I think it’s going to be interesting to watch this thing develop. Hillary Clinton is not an employee of the president.  Nor should she be, by anybody’s lights.

Say what? Hillary doesn’t see herself “taking orders” from Pres. Obama, and will instead “think originally” about the messages to be sent to foreign governments?  She’s not his employee?  And for that matter, not just Hillary but “the Clintons” are PBO’s “coalition partners”? Matthews drew the analogy to Ehud Barak joining the Netanyahu government.  But Barak leads Labor, a different party from Netanyahu’s Likud.  I thought the Clintons and PBO were all Democrats.  Is there a new Clinton Party in the land?

A country speaking with more than one independent voice to the world?  A coalition government between PBO and the Clintons?  Matthews was certainly right about one thing: “it’s going to be interesting.”