WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the Senate before she had even surrendered the title of first lady.

An anything-but-typical freshman, she surprised skeptics with how well she fit in to a chamber where reputations are usually built over decades.

She didn't big-foot colleagues. A junior senator in the minority party, she put her head down and went to work.

She sought out the longest-serving senator in history, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, to receive a tutorial on the art of legislating, even though he had been an outspoken critic of her husband during the impeachment debate.

She waited her turn to speak, and when she did talk, it was clear she had done her homework.

By most accounts she was seen as a serious legislator who tended to her state's interests. She was re-elected in 2006 in a cakewalk.

But there is no blockbuster legislation with her name on it. No soaring oratory still rings in the ears.

Some campaign promises went unfulfilled, notably her promise to create 200,000 jobs in upstate New York.

Her vote to authorize the Iraq war and other moves toward the center caused liberals to grouse that she had betrayed her roots.

And the skills that make for a successful junior senator are not necessarily those that shout presidential leadership.

Citing the "cumbersome" rules under which the Senate operates, Clinton told an Associated Press reporter last year, "I'm somebody who just gets up every day and tries to push that decision a little bit further every day."

For all her hard work, she brought baggage to the Senate that could not be shed.

Clinton points to her role in putting together $20 billion in aid for New York after the Sept. 11 attacks as one of her greatest Senate achievements.