WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to nominate Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, sources familiar with the process said on Saturday.
Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004 and a stalwart Obama supporter, had been widely tipped as the likely candidate for top U.S. diplomat following the withdrawal last week of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.
The announcement of Kerry’s nomination could come as early as mid-week, according to one source knowledgeable of the situation, although it could also be delayed to avoid the impression of an overly-hasty return to politics following the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday.
The source said the White House is leaning toward unveiling Kerry’s nomination as part of a high-profile package that would include his pick for defense secretary.
Former Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel is the top candidate to take over the Pentagon and the White House’s vetting process for him is virtually complete, the source said.
Obama met Hagel at the White House on Dec. 3 to discuss the post and has also spoken to Vice President Joe Biden, the source said.
While Obama is said to be generally comfortable with Hagel’s foreign policy views, there is some concern within the administration that his record of occasional criticism of Israel could create problems in the confirmation process.
CLINTON ILL
Clinton, consistently rated as the most popular of Obama’s cabinet, intends to step down toward the end of January when Obama is sworn in for a second term. The State Department said on Saturday she was recovering from a concussion suffered after she became dehydrated with a stomach virus.
There is widespread speculation that Clinton will seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.
Kerry’s nomination would close the books on a political firestorm that engulfed Rice, the candidate seen as the early favorite for the top diplomatic job.
A close Obama confidante, Rice withdrew her name from consideration after heavy fire from Republicans for remarks she made in the aftermath of a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for its early public explanations of the attack, and trained most of their firepower on Rice, who went on television to say that preliminary information suggested the assault was the result of protests over an anti-Muslim video made in California rather than a premeditated strike.
Rice, defended by Obama and other senior members of the administration, said on Thursday she was withdrawing her name from consideration to avoid a potentially lengthy and disruptive confirmation process in the U.S. Senate.
Kerry, known both nationally through his presidential run and in the U.S. Senate where he has long been a senior Democratic powerbroker, offers no such challenges.
After losing narrowly to Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election, Kerry forged a new identity as a congressional leader on foreign policy, often serving as a low-profile emissary for the White House.
Even Republicans in Congress said they expected their colleague to sail through the confirmation process.
“I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues,” Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins said recently.
Kerry’s departure from the Senate forces the Democrats to defend his seat.
The just-defeated but still-popular Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown, who took office in early 2010 after winning the last special election for a Massachusetts seat, is widely expected to run for Kerry’s seat if he leaves.
Republicans criticized Rice for being too much of a political ally of Obama’s rather a stateswoman. But Kerry has his own close ties to the Democratic president.
Kerry supported his fellow senator early in his 2008 presidential campaign and was a leading contender to be Obama’s first secretary of state.
He served as an important ally in the Senate after Obama won the White House and has also played important supportive roles for the White House in foreign policy. Obama sent Kerry to Afghanistan in 2009, when he helped talk President Hamid Karzai into agreeing to a runoff election.
after her clearly partisan opposition to susan rice, why would anyone care about her approval of senator kerry. what she really approves of is kerry vacating his seat in the senate for scott brown to occupy.
This was not just a partisan issue: Susan Rice’s problems extended beyond Benghazi. Her tenure as assistant secretary of state for African affairs during the Clinton administration was marked by some colossal diplomatic failures and missteps. There is little doubt that history would have come out in great detail during the confirmation hearings. She saved herself the embarrassment of having to defend her record and we are better off that she has taken herself out of the running.
Well it’s not like he can turn it down. Look what happened the last time John didn’t get a job that should have been his, we had four more years of George Junior that included two endless wars and the worst economic collapse this country has seen since the Great Depression. I’m glad it’s being offered and glad that he’s going to take it. Besides after the blood bath the GOP/Tea Party just took in the last election cycle, I’m not at all sure that Mr. Brown would be a shoe-in even for dog catcher.
Oh please andre, this was a rope-a-dope the whole way initiated by the democrats….they couldn’t have a rich white boy from Mass. as the first selection, what would the democrat recipient class think of such a move…
Hahaha, of course she is, that’s all the entire Republican Party wanted, Kerry’s senate seat. Now let’s watch as the right wing clown circus goes into full swing under their bigtop of extreme and anything goes to acquire this seat, to hell with the Benghazi ruse.
Yes indeed! That’s what worries me about this, losing Kerry’s senate seat. As we all know Mass is not immune to making serious mistakes at the ballot box. I give you Romney.
One insider supporting another insider.
Business as usual.
I was hoping Obama would tap John Huntsman for SOS, it would have been great sport to watch as the Republican’s would have been forced to eat their own to get a shot at the seat. I think D’s will hold on to it they do have some good prospects this time around.
Will we hear from John McCain or Lindsey Graham of this decision? I think NOT!
if Susan Rice wanted to be Sec. of State all she had to do was disclose who told her to cover-up the Benghazi terrorist attack. she declined to do this to protect Hilary Clinton’s presidental ambitions in 2016
Where’d you hear that?
Delusional, Ms. Rice could of had angels fly out of her butt, they still would have politically executed her.
Thank God the blood thirsty Plutocratic Corporatists of the extreme clan only had to scalp and skin one very bright and young female of color to get the spoils they desired.
After all how many scalps can the elastic waist band of a Depends hold?
Who cares what Susan Collins thinks at this point.
Susan Collins, Oh Gawd, she is out of her hole again, Susan Collins has helped run this Country right into the ground, on her watch, her support of George W. Bush, and Cheney, Cheney, the most vile man on earth, yes, Susan Collins, I hope the people in two years have the sense to usher her out to her bungalow in Washington.
Susan Rice is a Stanford grad and a Rhodes Scholar. Not to say that she’s perfect, but she makes Susan Collins look like an intellectual pygmy. Surely her being black also accounted for Collins’ opposition. One Sec. of State Rice was quite enough for “Our Senator.” Shame on Collins, for whom I’ll never vote again.
Doesn’t surprise me that she would be pleased. I wouldn’t want him appointed dog catcher where i live…………….
does anyone remember his his lying about RVN “swift boat: probably just slipped the mind. he should fit right in with administration.
So a RINO is pleased, no big surprise. The man who called us baby killers and murders and threw us under the bus in his testimony before congress, ya. Same thing is happening today except now they are called heroes. I flew Dust Off, day in and day out, we carried those who actually deserved a Purple Heard, we didn’t carry anyone with a paper cut. As far as I’m concerned, Kerry and Jane Fonda only belong in one place, in jail and in the ground, respectively. I can see another apology tour coming. Go ahead, jump on me now, show all of us your intelligence, the light will shine brightly, my service was to preserve your right to do so.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you KurtJLane. Wounds are hard to heal but a thanks is much appreciated anyway no matter how late. Better than never.
Anything to get him out of the Senate!
As worthless as he is in the Senate, that will I suspect, carry over to the State Department. Would be nice to have someone in those positions that actually represented the American people.
I think her “support” is based upon her hoping that Brown will pick up Kerry’s seat. We’ll see how that goes. He did just lose one senate race, everything said during that campaign still applies.
Susan Collins has been able to play Mainers like a fiddle, it has taken a long time, but a few besides myself can see who she really is, she is not really even qualified to be a Senator, she, is just not of a high enough caliber, I cannot believe she will be elected again, we deserve a real Senator.
Susan Collins has shown herself to be as phony as a three dollar bill on this issue. It was never about wanting to get to the bottom of the Benghazi issue as she falsely claimed. It was about getting Scott Brown , a republican, back in the Senate. For proof of that all one has is look at her statement after meeting with MS Rice where she stated she felt John Kerry would make an ideal Sec. of State. And that was with no one asking for her opinion of who to nominate for Sec of State.
I think Colin Powell would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by both republicans and democrats.
I think Colin Powell would make an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by both democrats and republicans
Collins overreacted regarding Susan Rice.
If Hillary hadn’t of been too tired to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows herself, none of this involving Rice would ever have happened.