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| President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as he announces his nomination of Kerry as next secretary of state in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Washington. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, one of Washington's most respected voices on foreign policy, as his next secretary of state.
The move is the first in an expected overhaul of Obama's national security team heading into his second term.
As
the nation's top diplomat, Kerry will not only be tasked with executing
the president's foreign policy objectives, but will also have a hand in
shaping them. The longtime lawmaker has been in lockstep with Obama on
issues like nuclear non-proliferation, but ahead of the White House in
advocating aggressive policies in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere that the
president later embraced.
"He is not going to
need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said, standing alongside Kerry
in a Roosevelt Room ceremony. "Few individuals know as many presidents
and prime ministers or grasp our foreign policies as firmly as John
Kerry."
He is expected to win confirmation
easily in the Senate, where he has served since 1985, the last six years
as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Kerry
would take the helm at the State Department from Secretary Hillary
Rodham Clinton, who has long planned to leave the administration early
next year. Clinton is recovering from a concussion sustained in a fall
and did not attend the White House event.
In a
statement, Clinton said, "John Kerry has been tested - in war, in
government, and in diplomacy. Time and again, he has proven his mettle."
Obama
settled on Kerry for the job even though it could cause a political
problem for Democrats in Massachusetts. Kerry's move to State would open
the Senate seat he has held for five terms, giving Republicans an
opportunity to take advantage. Recently defeated GOP Sen. Scott Brown
would be his party's clear favorite in a special election.
Kerry
would join a national security team in flux, with Obama expected to
choose a new defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence
Agency in the coming weeks.
The 69-year-old
Kerry already has deep relationships with many world leaders, formed
both during his Senate travels and as an unofficial envoy for Obama. The
president has called upon Kerry in particular to diffuse diplomatic
disputes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that will be at the
forefront of Obama's foreign policy agenda early in his second term.
At
times, Kerry has been more forward-leaning than Obama on foreign policy
issues. He was an early advocate of an international "no-fly zone" over
Libya in 2011 and among the first U.S. lawmakers to call for Egyptian
strongman Hosni Mubarak to leave power as pro-democracy protests grew.
Obama later backed both positions.
Kerry would
take over at a State Department grappling with the deaths of the U.S.
ambassador to Libya and three other Americans during a September attack
on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Kerry, during a hearing on the
attacks Thursday, hinted at how he would manage U.S. diplomatic
personnel working in unstable regions.
"There
will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get
`outside the wire' and the security standards that require our diplomats
to work behind high walls," he said. "Our challenge is to strike a
balance between the necessity of the mission, available resources and
tolerance for risk."
His only other rival for
the job, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, faced harsh criticism from
congressional Republicans for her initial accounting of the consulate
attack. Obama vigorously defended Rice, a close friend and longtime
adviser, but GOP senators dug in, threatening to hold up her nomination
if the president tapped her for the post.
Rice
withdrew her name from consideration last week, making Kerry all but
certain to become the nominee. People familiar with the White House's
decision-making said support within the administration was moving toward
Kerry even before Rice pulled out.
The son of
a diplomat, Kerry was first elected to the Senate in 1984. He is also a
decorated Vietnam veteran who was critical of the war effort when he
returned to the U.S. He ran for president in 2004, losing a close race
to incumbent Republican President George W. Bush.
Obama
and Kerry have developed close ties in recent years. It was Kerry,
during his 2004 presidential run, who tapped Obama as the party's
convention keynote speaker, a role that thrust the little-known Illinois
politician into national prominence.
Kerry
served on Obama's debate preparation team during the 2012 election,
playing Republican challenger Mitt Romney in mock debates.
"Nothing
brings two people closer together than two weeks of debate prep," Obama
joked on Friday. "John, I'm looking forward to working with you rather
than debating you."
Kerry is Obama's first
Cabinet appointee following the November election. The president is also
mulling replacements for retiring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and
former CIA director David Petraeus, who resigned last month after
admitting to an affair with his biographer.
Former
Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is a front-runner for the
Pentagon post, but has been dogged by questions about his support for
Israel and where he stands on gay rights, with critics calling on him to
repudiate a comment in 1998 that a former ambassadorial nominee was
"openly, aggressively gay."
Hagel apologized for that comment Friday.
Former
Pentagon official Michele Flournoy and current Deputy Defense Secretary
Ashton Carter are also under consideration to replace Panetta. Obama is
also considering promoting acting CIA Director Michael Morell or naming
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as the nation's spy
chief.
