WASHINGTON — 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. Kerry himself 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 Department plans a welcoming ceremony for Kerry on Monday.
Obama tapped Kerry, 69, the son of a diplomat, a decorated Vietnam veteran and the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, 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, DN.J., who will succeed Kerry as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
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 after 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.
Cruz said Kerry has supported “treaties and international tribunals that have undermined U.S. sovereignty.”
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.
Confirmation hearings are scheduled Thursday for Hagel and Feb. 7 for Brennan.
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. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippiwill 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, RS.C., threatened to block the nomination of both men until he gets more answers from the Obama administration about the assault on a 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 that he would “absolutely” block Hagel unless Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testifies about the attack in Benghazi.
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.
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.
In other developments, Hagel has told Pentagon officials he plans to divest some of his financial holdings and resign from several corporate boards and public-interest groups to avoid potential conflicts of interest if he wins Senate confirmation.
Hagel told Defense Department officials in a letter last week that he would resign his corporate board post at Chevron Corp. and shed investments in the energy firm, a major government contractor. He also would cut ties and investments with the McCarthy Group LLC, an Omaha-basedprivate equity firm.
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 Mc-Cain, 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 nationalsecurity 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.
Clinton, who was participating in a global forum, expressed her hope that Kerry could make headway on the Middle East.
Taking note of the recent Israeli parliamentary elections, in which a centrist coalition made significant gains, Clinton said the shifting political landscape might facilitate progress.
“I actually think that this election opens doors, not nails them shut,” she said. “I know that President Obama, my successor, soon-to-be Secretary of State John Kerry, will pursue this.”
The selection of Kerry closes a political circle with Obama. In 2004, it was White House hopeful Kerry who asked Obama, then a largely unknown Illinois state senator, to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic convention in Boston.
Kerry lost that election to President George W. Bush. Four years later, Obama was the White House hopeful who succeeded where Kerry had failed.
In other developments, Ray LaHood, the former Republican congressman from Illinois who has run the nation’s Transportation Department under Obama, will not serve a second term, he told department employees in a letter Tuesday.
“I’ve told President Obama, and I’ve told many of you, that this is the best job I’ve ever had. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work with all of you,” LaHood wrote.
He cited the department’s efforts to curb distracted driving and to increase the efficiency of automobiles by raising emissions standards.
As transportation secretary, LaHood was at the center of efforts to reduce fatigue among pilots and called for greater investment in high-speed rail. He also pushed for large fines against Toyota for safety problems and for a new transportation bill in Congress.
“We have made great progress in improving the safety of our transit systems, pipelines, and highways, and in reducing roadway fatalities to historic lows,” he said. “We have strengthened consumer protections with new regulations on buses, trucks, and airlines.”
In a statement, Obamapraised LaHood, the last remaining Republican from the president’s first-term Cabinet, as a public servant who has been more interested in practical solutions than in partisan politics.
Several people have been mentioned as possible replacements for LaHood. Among them: Antonio Villaraigosa, the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles; Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania; Debbie Hersman, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board; and Jennifer Granholm, the former Democratic governor of Michigan.
Information for this article was contributed by Donna Cassata and Stephen Braun of The Associated Press; by Michael R. Gordon and Michael D. Shear of The New York Times and by Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, David Lerman, Larry Liebert and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/30/2013