A shorter post today on the seemingly intractable Republican opposition to the nomination of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as the successor to Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Both Ambassador Rice and Senator Kerry have been named as likely successors when Hillary Clinton leaves as Secretary of State, with Ambassador Rice seemingly having the inside track as of late. The White House actually floated the trial balloon of John Kerry as Secretary of Defense via the leak process last week. Republican opposition to Ambassador Rice has been strong, based on her initial response to the Benghazi attack, in which she stated that the incident was likely a spontaneous response to the anti-Muslim video that had received much publicity in the days before the attack.

The attacks on Rice by the Lindsay Graham/John McCain cabal, put forth strongly in the past week by both in different media, make it obvious that achieving the necessary 60 votes for her in the Senate will require some heavy lifting by the President. The obvious beneficiary of this is the long time friend of John McCain, Senator John Kerry. If the President is deterred by the angry Republican rhetoric on Rice he would likely turn to Kerry. Maybe Benghazi is not the only reason McCain/Graham oppose Ambassador Rice. Trying to help push along their long time friend and colleague John Kerry would certainly give them a bit more sway and access at State were they to be successful in derailing Ambassador Rice. Speculation? Absolutely. Evidence? None. But the United States Senate works in strange, and sometimes not so mysterious ways.