Secretary of State post looms large

Among the senior jobs the president-elect must fill, no position looms larger than that of Secretary of State.

It’s the cabinet’s top prize: an office, fourth in line in presidential succession, first held by Thomas Jefferson, with past occupants including James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and George C. Marshall.

With the country engaged in two protracted wars and tense diplomatic negotiations in North Korea and elsewhere, the State Department will undoubtedly play a central role in the first months of the Barack Obama administration. And Obama’s choice for the department’s lead post will help define what kind of approach he’ll take to diplomacy and international affairs.

Unlike the last two newly-elected presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama does not necessarily have a clear choice for the position of Secretary of State. In 1992, former State Department official Warren Christopher was seen as a leading candidate for the position as early as the summer before the election. Eight years later, in 2000, Colin Powell was an almost prohibitive favorite to get the nod from President-elect Bush.

Obama, on the other hand, has a longer list of possibilities to choose from for America’s top diplomat.

If the soon-to-be 44th president wants to draw on the expertise of the Democratic Party’s foreign-policy establishment, three names likely would be at the top of his State Department short list: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former United Nations ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry.

Richardson, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this election cycle, has one of the longest diplomatic resumes of any elected official. A seven-term veteran of the House of Representatives, Richardson served in the Clinton administration as ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of Energy.

Though Richardson stumbled in the Democratic primaries, wounding his candidacy with verbal slip-ups and poor debate performances, he developed a reputation in the 1990s as a hard-edged hostage negotiator, and even as governor of New Mexico he maintained his involvement in foreign affairs, visiting crisis hot spots such as Darfur and North Korea. He endorsed Obama late in the Democratic primaries, but as a former Clinton administration official, his support carried extra punch.

One Clinton White House veteran who did not support Obama during his party’s nominating contest, but who must still be viewed as a contender for Secretary of State, is former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Having served as Assistant Secretary of State for Asia and for Europe before succeeding Richardson at the United Nations, Holbrooke has one of the most distinguished State Department pedigrees in Democratic politics.

Holbrooke’s role in bringing peace to Bosnia – he helped lead negotiations on the Dayton Accords – made him a top contender for the Secretary’s post in Clinton’s second term. And in 2004, he was one of the two most-mentioned candidates for the job in a potential Kerry administration. His top rival? Joe Biden, who won’t be standing in his way this time.

But Holbrooke was strongly identified with the Clintons during the 2008 Democratic primaries, and Obama may want a Democratic who’s been closer to his campaign effort. If that’s the case, and Richardson’s not his guy, there’s another name that’s generated a lot of chatter: John F. Kerry.

The Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in the 2004 elections, Kerry’s endorsement of Obama gave the Illinois senator a burst of momentum at a vitally important time in the Democratic primaries. And in addition to the stature he gained as a major-party presidential nominee, Kerry is a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been involved in international policy since he took a leading role in the Iran-Contra investigations.

The Massachusetts senator would not be a new face, but Obama could be inclined to bring his Senate colleague into the White House with him.

As much as the Democratic Party provides Obama with several plausible choices for secretary of state, the president-elect may want to consider a broader talent pool – perhaps even naming a Republican to the position.

If Obama were to go in that direction, two GOP senators would likely lead the pack of would-be secretaries: Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and maverick Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who is retiring from the senate and did not stand for re-election.

Lugar, the 76-year-old former mayor of Indianapolis, has a long record of working across the aisle on foreign policy matters. In the 1990s he forged a bipartisan bill on arms control with Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn. More recently, he and Biden put forth a compromise alternative to the bill authorizing the use of force in Iraq. That measure failed, but Lugar strengthened his reputation as a moderate foreign policy thinker – and his relationship with the man who is now the second-highest ranking official in the United States.

The Indiana senator has disavowed interest in joining Obama’s administration, and it is possible that Obama will decide that Lugar, with whom he has collaborated on nuclear proliferation issues, can be of more use to him as a partner in the Senate. Still, Lugar’s name remains on the lips of many in Washington, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Hagel, too, would lend Obama’s cabinet a bipartisan character. The two-term Nebraska senator flirted with endorsing Obama during the general election, traveling to Iraq with him in July and conspicuously refusing to back John McCain, his own party’s nominee. Hagel’s wife, Lilibet, endorsed Obama late in the campaign.

The legislator appears to have a good relationship with the president-elect, and his sharp criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq suggests that some of his foreign policy priorities might mesh well with Obama’s. But Hagel is not a liberal Republican, and he made a name for himself in the Senate as a vocal opponent of the Clinton administration’s efforts to restrict carbon emissions through the Kyoto Treaty.

Obama may roll out his nominee quickly, or he may take his time choosing between these options – and other potential appointees as well. But whenever he makes his choice, it will help show the public what kind of international policy he wants to pursue and what kind of people he most trusts to help him.