As many have said, the Specialized Tricross is great for this purpose. I too own an older model (2006) without disc brakes. I prefer that actually. The thing about the Tricross is that, although it’s a cross bike, it works great at a commuter/tourer. When I first bought mine, I used it for a 500 mile cycling trip across Spain with a rack and pannier and fenders and it was fantastic for that purpose. Now it is a commuter bike and it is also fantastic for that purpose. If I need to bring a bunch of stuff on a bad-weather day, I’ve got my big, waterproof panniers.
(I kinda get the sense from all I’ve ready and from my friends who are serious about cross that the Tricross was not really considered as much of a “serious” cross bike compared to some other brands/models. Now it seems that Specialized has aimed the Crux to be the “serious” one and the Tricross to be more of the commuter version.)
I had regular, flat pedals with cages for that trip and it was great. Right now I’ve got the two-sided Shimano clipless on them but for commuting, frankly I could do either. My commute is only 6 miles though.
One word of advice. If you can swing it,keep a good, tough, single speed road bike handy as well. It makes a great alternative for those good-weather days when you don’t want to take the big,heavy commuter bike and don’t need to lug a bunch of stuff.
-Joe