Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-NE, is likely to become the next Defense secretary and tops President Obama’s list of potential nominees, Bloomberg reports. Hagel, who served in Vietnam and has been close to Obama in recent years, would be the administration’s only Republican cabinet member after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood leaves. KERRY TO STATE Yes, all eyes are on Sen. John Kerry, D-MA. He’d be the first former presidential nominee to get the State job since Charles Evans Hughes served in the 1920s and before that William Jennings Bryan under President Wilson. Kerry would be the second senator in modern times—along with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edmund Muskie—to get the post. Expect easy confirmation. AP’s Donna Cassata: “The possible selection of Kerry and Hagel would put two decorated Vietnam War veterans – one Navy, the other Army – at State and the Pentagon.”
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