John Kerry, who gets to become chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations after he wasn't picked for secretary of sate, reacts to the announcement of the Clinton appointment with grace: "President-Elect Obama has chosen a terrific national security team to protect our security and help restore America's rightful place in the world."
As an appreciator of the tragic, I've always liked Kerry and hoped he would get the State appointment over Clinton -- who I think will do a fine job -- if only because I think he is a more developed foreign policy thinker. I don't think his failed presidential campaign really was a disqualifier; if anything, as Jason Zengerle chronicles in this recent profile, it allowed Massachusetts' junior senator to blossom into a more aggressive and thoughtful politician. Certainly, Kerry's long engagement with the issue of terrorism, and particularly his early willingness, muffled by political fears during his presidential campaign, to reject the "War on Terror" formulation in favor of a smarter and more effective approach to combating terrorist groups, would have made him a formidable State Department chief.
But as we speculate over the developing policy processes of the executive branch and the relationships between the various appointees, don't count out Kerry's influence. He'll have a decent public pulpit in his new chairmanship, and his close relationship with the various administration principals means he'll have a voice in the new administration as well. Obama's apparent commitment to working closely with Congress suggests that his committee will have more power than Dick Lugar's did throughout the Bush administration. Many of the foreign policy challenges that the U.S. currently faces, from Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan to climate change and nuclear proliferation, will spur complicated debates among liberals and the country at large, and Kerry is in the right position -- and may be the right person -- to effectively frame these discussions and develop coherent ideas into effective foreign policy.
--Tim Fernholz
