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Senate approves John Kerry's nomination

Published:Wednesday | January 30, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Senator John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, emerges after a unanimous vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving him to become America's next top diplomat, replacing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Capitol Hill in Washington yesterday. - ap

WASHINGTON (AP):

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday swiftly and unanimously approved President Barack Obama's choice of Senator John Kerry to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

By voice vote, the panel approved the nomination of the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate, who has been a member of the committee for 28 years and led it for the past four.

Kerry did not attend the session in the ornate diplomatic room in the Capitol. In his absence, Democrats and Republicans praised Kerry and remarked on his extensive grasp of the issues during his confirmation hearing last Thursday.

"Long-winded," joked Senator John McCain, a Republican and a Kerry friend who had introduced the senator at that hearing.

Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who succeeds Kerry as committee chairman, said the senator would be a "formidable secretary of state".

Obama chose Kerry, 69, the son of a diplomat and decorated Vietnam veteran, to succeed Clinton, who is stepping down after four years. The senator had pined for the top diplomatic job that went to Clinton after Obama's 2008 election.