Sen. Kerry applauds Obama's national security picks

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday applauded President Obama for selecting Leon Panetta and Gen. David Petraeus to lead the Pentagon and CIA, saying he expects both will easily be confirmed.

“Leon Panetta and Gen. Petraeus are first-rate public servants whose reputations and records transcend party, and I expect broad approval and swift confirmations,” Kerry said in a statement hours before Obama will formally announce his selections.

By shifting Panetta, the current CIA director, to the Pentagon and Petraeus from his post as U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan to the intelligence agency, Obama is ensuring “continuity of leadership, policy, and philosophy and keeps a strong national security team in place,” Kerry said.

Kerry touted Panetta’s “extraordinarily deep institutional knowledge of the White House, Congress, and the CIA.” The senator said Panetta has gained “broad respect for the way he pragmatically, thoughtfully confronted the vexing challenges of Iraq through his work on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.”

Kerry also said Panetta is respected by members of both political parties “for his work to repair the image and the credibility of the CIA.”

Panetta would replace soon-to-retire Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whom Kerry said “helped end the turf battles and inter-agency divide of the [Donald] Rumsfeld era, and he seamlessly integrated the Pentagon’s goals into America’s broader foreign policy agenda.”

Kerry called Petraeus one of “the very best military leaders of his generation.”

Obama also will announce two other moves.

The president has selected Ryan Crocker, a former ambassador to Iraq, as the next U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. John Allen, now deputy U.S. Central Command chief, will be tapped as successor to Petraeus in Afghanistan.

The president feels this will give him the “strongest possible team” and will provide a “seamless transition” as the White House gets used to life without retiring Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a senior White House official said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters.

Kerry said he plans to hold “an early confirmation hearing” on Crocker’s nomination.

While the White House would like the other three officials in place later this summer, it wants Crocker on the job as soon as possible.