Reporting for Duty: Sources Say Kerry Tapped for Sec. of State

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Michael Sneed is reporting that President Barack Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  

This comes on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had removed herself from the list of candidates to take over from Hillary Clinton. Rice said that what was sure to be a contentious and lengthy approval process took attention away from more pressing problems facing the nation.

Kerry heading to Foggy Bottom opens up a couple of intriguing political possibilities in the US Senate.  

• Kerry’s replacement as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey who has recently been embroiled in two scandals including last week’s revelation that he had employed on his senate staff an illegal immigrant with a history of convictions for sex offenses
• His vacant seat will be subject to a special election and DC insiders predict that former Senator Scott Brown would be a shoe-in for the vacancy.  This would add one more Republican Senator to the GOP caucus, a vote that could come in handy in the potentially contentious second term of Barack Obama.

Kerry is expected to sail through confirmation in the Senate.