Jockeying for State Dept. Job Under Way

HIspanic groups push Richardson, but Kerry may have inside track
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 12, 2008 10:20 AM CST
Jockeying for State Dept. Job Under Way
In this Aug. 30, 1999, photo, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke, right, shakes hands with Sen. Joe Biden after arriving at the KFOR Pristina headquarters in the Kosovo capital.    (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

As Barack Obama deliberates his Cabinet choices, the chorus of "Pick me! Pick me!" begins in earnest, with many eyes on Condoleezza Rice's chair, reports the Wall Street Journal. Hispanic groups are pushing for their own Bill Richardson, a former presidential rival who ultimately endorsed Obama. But the UN ambassador under Bill Clinton faces stiff elbows from his predecessor in that job, Richard Holbrooke, and Sens. Richard Lugar and John Kerry.

Some reports give Kerry the inside track, because he endorsed Obama at a bad time for the then-insurgent candidate, supposedly in exchange for the State slot—or so the New Republic tells it. A spokesman for Lugar, who has worked with Obama and Joe Biden on the Foreign Relations committee, says the senator isn’t interested.
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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