WP: Kerry Exploring Cabinet Options

[kskiska]

If he wins the White House, John F. Kerry will immediately confront a difficult, divisive and deeply personal decision: which close friend will he have to stiff for secretary of state?

Kerry, who would name a national security team a few weeks after the election, is said by campaign sources to be under a fair amount of pressure to pick Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke to help repair global alliances and attract new allies to assist in Iraq. Both men are seasoned diplomats, ambitious and close friends and political advisers to Kerry. And both clearly want the job.

It was once assumed that Holbrooke, who was a U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton, was the front-runner. But campaign sources say Biden's stock soared after the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee played a central role in helping to turn the campaign around last month with a sharper focus on problems in Iraq. Some say that Holbrooke could be sent to the Middle East as a special envoy as a possible consolation prize.

In the end, both men might be passed over for state, campaign sources say, because Kerry has told friends he wants to tap a Republican for one of the top national security posts, preferably defense or state. Those under consideration include Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), as well as former senator Warren Rudman.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52688-2004Oct21.html