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| Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., emerges after a unanimous vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving him to become America's next top diplomat, replacing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. Kerry, who has served on the Foreign Relations panel for 28 years and led the committee for the past four, is expected to be swiftly confirmed by the whole Senate later Tuesday. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed President Barack Obama's
choice of five-term Sen. John Kerry to be secretary of state, with
Republicans and Democrats praising him as the ideal successor to Hillary
Rodham Clinton.
The vote Tuesday was 94-3.
One senator - Kerry - voted present and accepted congratulations from
colleagues on the Senate floor. The roll call came just hours after the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved the man who has
led the panel for the past four years.
No date
has been set for Kerry's swearing-in, but in a letter to Massachusetts
Gov. Deval Patrick, Kerry says his resignation is effective at 4 p.m.
Friday. The State Departments plans a welcoming ceremony for Kerry on
Monday.
Obama tapped Kerry, 69, the son of a
diplomat, decorated Vietnam veteran and 2004 Democratic presidential
candidate, to succeed Clinton, who is stepping down after four years.
The Massachusetts Democrat, who had pined for the job but was passed
over in 2009, has served as Obama's unofficial envoy, smoothing
fractious ties with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Sen.
Kerry will need no introduction to the world's political and military
leaders and will begin Day One fully conversant not only with the
intricacies of U.S. foreign policy, but able to act on a multitude of
international stages," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who will succeed
Kerry as committee chairman.
Sen. Bob Corker
of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, called Kerry "a realist" who
will deal with unrest in Egypt, civil war in Syria, the threat of
al-Qaida-linked groups in Africa and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Kerry,
a forceful proponent of climate change legislation, also will have a
say in whether the United States moves ahead on the Keystone XL pipeline
from Canada, a divisive issue that has roiled environmentalists.
Obama
had nominated Kerry after Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, removed her name from consideration following criticism from
Republicans over her initial comments about the attacks on the U.S.
Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Voting against
Kerry were three Republicans - Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and John Cornyn
and Ted Cruz of Texas. Absent from the vote were Sens. Patty Murray,
D-Wash., and John Hoeven, R-N.D.
"Sen. Kerry
has a long history of liberal positions that are not consistent with a
majority of Texans," Cornyn said in a statement. The senator is up for
re-election next year and could face a tea party challenge.
Kerry's
smooth path to the nation's top diplomatic job stands in stark contrast
to the harsher treatment for Obama's other national security nominees -
Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary and John Brennan to be CIA
director.
Hagel, the former two-term
Republican senator from Nebraska, faces strong opposition from some of
his onetime GOP colleagues who question his support for reductions in
the nuclear arsenal and cuts in defense spending. Lawmakers also have
questioned whether he is sufficiently supportive of Israel and strongly
opposed to any outreach to Iran.
Democrats
have rallied for Hagel, and he has the announced support of at least a
dozen members in advance of his confirmation hearing on Thursday. Sen.
Thad Cochran of Mississippi will support Hagel, a spokesman said
Tuesday, making him the first Republican to signal he will vote for the
nomination.
Six Republicans have said they
would vote against him, with some opposing Obama's choice even before
the president's announcement.
Brennan faces
questions from the GOP about White House leaks of classified information
and from Democrats about the administration's use of drones.
Sen.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., threatened to block the nomination of both men
until he gets more answers from the Obama administration about the
assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya that killed Ambassador
Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Graham,
who earlier this month signaled he would delay Brennan's pick, said in
an interview Monday night with Fox News' "On the Record" the he would
"absolutely" block Hagel unless Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies
about the attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Clinton testified for more than five hours last Wednesday before the House and Senate, but that wasn't sufficient for Graham.
"Hillary
Clinton got away with murder, in my view," he said. "She said they had a
clear-eyed view of the threats. How could you have a clear-eyed of the
threats in Benghazi when you didn't know about the ambassador's cable
coming back from Libya?"
Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., told reporters Tuesday that a
hearing with Panetta on Libya is planned though the date is uncertain.
Graham welcomed that news and said he would not thwart a committee vote
on the nomination.
"Happy as a clam. News to me," said Graham, who met with Hagel for 20 minutes on Tuesday.
Pentagon
spokesman George Little said Panetta had not responded yet to the
request but that the department has been forthcoming with information.
He insisted that the Hagel confirmation process move as quickly as
possible.
Two former chairmen of the committee
- Democrat Sam Nunn of Georgia and Republican John Warner of Virginia -
plan to introduce Hagel, according to officials close to the
confirmation process. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the
committee has not formally made an announcement.
As
a White House emissary, Kerry has tamped down diplomatic fires for
Obama. He also has stepped ahead of the administration on a handful of
crises. He joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as an early proponent of a
more aggressive policy toward Libya, pushing for using military forces
to impose a "no-fly zone" over Libya as Moammar Gadhafi's forces killed
rebels and other citizens. He was one of the early voices calling for
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down as revolution roiled the
nation two years ago.
During his tenure, Kerry
has pushed for reducing the number of nuclear weapons, shepherding a
U.S.-Russia treaty through the Senate in December 2010, and has cast
climate change as a national security threat, joining forces with
Republicans on legislation that faced too many obstacles to win
congressional passage.
He has led delegations
to Syria and met a few times with President Bashar Assad, now a pariah
in U.S. eyes after months of civil war and bloodshed as the government
looks to put down a people's rebellion. Figuring out an end-game for the
Middle East country would demand all of Kerry's skills.
The
selection of Kerry closes a political circle with Obama. In 2004, it
was White House hopeful Kerry who asked a largely unknown Illinois state
senator to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention in
Boston, handing the national stage to Obama. Kerry lost that election to
President George W. Bush. Four years later, Obama was the White House
hopeful who succeeded where Kerry had failed.
