U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Democratic Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of state on Friday, making the first move in a sweeping overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term.
Kerry will take the helm at the State Department from outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has long stated her intentions to leave early next year. Kerry, a longtime Massachusetts senator, is expected to be easily approved for the cabinet post by his Capitol Hill colleagues.
The moves opens up the Senate seat Kerry has held for nearly three decades. Recently defeated Republican Senator Scott Brown is eying it, though Massachusetts Democrats insist the party can keep the seat out of Republican hands.
Word about Washington’s latest worst-kept secret came at a sombre and somewhat unusual time, with both the president and Kerry attending a memorial service for Democratic Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. At the same time, leaders of the nation’s divided government were in limbo about how to head off the fiscal cliff’s looming Jan. 1, 2013, deadline.