Oh, for Pete’s sake, give the secretary of state a chance to get started before judging her in such a puerile manner. She and the vice president are longtime friends … she has known Dick Holbrooke for years (I’d say all the years he tried to become sec. of state himself) and she understands all about him and his ambitions … she is just poised to begin her very hard work putting things to rights in American diplomacy.

I think it’s childish for us to stand back and attribute crappy attitudes of jealousy and competition when none of us know exactly what is going on. But I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts, knowing Hillary Clinton, that she understands she can’t do it all by herself and that there are world problems aplenty, more than enough to go around.

She also knows that Holbrooke has his work cut out for him in trying to set things right with Pakistan. I imagine she’s rooting for him and strongly in his corner. He almost didn’t take this job; it was such a daunting one.

In this world, Hillary needs more smart people helping her, not less. I believe this State Department won’t have the chance to be a "petty competition" because there is too much at stake.

Click here on this text to read my New York Post column.