Kerry a familiar face on the world stage
Enlarge Photo
Associated
Press/Musadeq Sadeq - FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2009 file photo, Afghan
President Hamid Karzai, right, whispers with the U.S. Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass, left, as Kai Eide head of the United Nations Assistance
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John Kerry, President Barack Obama's pick for secretary of state, is a familiar face to the world leaders vital to American interests.
The son of a diplomat and Obama's
unofficial envoy, Kerry spent hours walking around the palace in Kabul
persuading Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff
election in fall 2009. The relationship will be crucial in the coming
months as the administration draws down U.S. forces after more than a
decade of war.
In Pakistan, Kerry helped quell the anger after the U.S. incursion
into the country to kill Osama bin Laden in May 2011. The uneasy ties
between Washington and Islamabad will be a priority for Kerry at the
State Department."He knows most of the world leaders," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "So when he goes into a country he will be a known quantity."
The five-term Massachusetts senator has spent his entire congressional career on the Foreign Relations Committee, the last six as chairman. He has traveled extensively both as intrepid lawmaker and administration emissary.
Fulfilling a Kerry dream, Obama on Friday tapped the 69-year-old
lawmaker, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and 2004 Democratic
presidential nominee, to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton for the top job at Foggy Bottom.
"I think it's fair to say that
few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers, or grasp
our foreign policies as firmly as John Kerry," Obama said in making the announcement. "And this makes him a perfect choice to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead."
Kerry is expected to sail to confirmation, with both Republicans and Democrats praising the nomination. His friend, Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., jokingly referred to him as "Mr. Secretary" earlier this
month, a remarkable turn as just eight years ago Republicans ridiculed
Kerry as a wind-surfing, elitist flip-flopper in his bid for the White
House.
While Kerry has tamped down diplomatic fires for Obama, he has
stepped ahead of the administration on a handful of crises. He joined
McCain 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 citizens.He was one of the early voices calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down as the revolution roiled the nation last year.
That independent voice may be tempered once he takes over as the administration's top diplomat.
"He's going to find what it's
like to be part of an administration," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.
"John's going to adapt to this well. I think he spent a lot of his time
grooming to be a good secretary of state. ... I don't see any downside to this nomination."
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.
Throughout this past election year, Kerry skewered Obama's Republican rival, Mitt Romney, at nearly every opportunity and was a vocal booster for the president's re-election. Kerry memorably told delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August: "Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."
Kerry and McCain, defeated
presidential candidates who returned to the Senate, have joined forces
repeatedly during the past few decades. In July 1995, the two decorated
Vietnam War veterans provided political cover to President Bill Clinton when he normalized U.S. relations with Vietnam. Clinton had been dogged by questions about his lack of military service.
Kerry, the Yale graduate who
enlisted in the Navy, was an appealing presidential nominee in 2004 for
his Vietnam War service. Three years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks,
national security credentials were critical against Bush.
But Kerry was pounded by the
Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, a group that made unsubstantiated claims
challenging Kerry's war record of a Silver Star, a Bronze Star for
combat valor and three Purple Hearts. His candidacy also was dogged by
his anti-war stance in April 1971 when he testified before the committee
he would later chair and famously asked, "How do you ask a man to be
the last man to die for a mistake?"
Kerry's move to the State
Department will spark yet another special election in Massachusetts —
the third Senate contest since a 2010 special election following the
death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 2009.
Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who won the 2010 special election but
lost last month to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, is seen as a
front-runner on the GOP side if he chooses to run again.
Possible Democratic candidates
include Reps. Michael Capuano, Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, and Ted
Kennedy Jr., son of the late senator. Gov. Deval Patrick must name an interim senator to serve until the special election. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis and Victoria Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy's widow, have been suggested as possible interim senators although Patrick hasn't publicly confirmed any names.
Kerry was in Pakistan last year
in the midst of a diplomatic crisis after Raymond Davis, a
CIA-contracted American spy, was accused of killing two Pakistanis.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to Pakistan around that time and recalled Kerry's influence.
"I arrived in Islamabad, I think,
five days after Ray Davis had been taken into a jail in the Punjab and
was at very real risk of being hauled out of the jail and lynched,"
Coons said. "Sen. Kerry
was about to show up and negotiate on behalf of the administration. And
it was clear that both the diplomats and the military folks we met with
viewed him as a real man of credibility and experience who was likely
to contribute meaningfully to those negotiations."
Davis pleaded self-defense. After
weeks of wrangling between the U.S. and Pakistan, he was released in
exchange for "blood money" paid to the dead men's relatives.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who likely will take over the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee,
said the high-level relationships that Kerry "built with world leaders
will allow him to step seamlessly into the position and to ensure that
there is no decline in U.S. leadership on important global issues during
a transition."
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Donna Cassata can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP