From the NewsMax.com Staff

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Kerry Considering Biden, Armitage for Possible Cabinet

If John Kerry becomes president, he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma: which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new secretary of state.

According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks of winning the White House, and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., and Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

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Both men, the Post says, "are seasoned diplomats, ambitious and close friends and political advisers to Kerry."

Holbrooke, a U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton, was thought to be the front-runner, but since Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, helped to energize the faltering Kerry campaign by sharpening the focus on problems in Iraq, he's now in the running for the post.

Should Biden get the job if Kerry wins, sources say that Holbrooke might be consoled with a job as Kerry's special envoy to the Middle East, sources told the Post.

There is also a strong possibility that Kerry might sidestep offending Holbrooke or Biden by tapping a Republican for one of the top national security posts, preferably defense or state, sources told the Post.

Kerry already has stated he might tap John McCain for the Defense Department, but Washington insiders see that as posturing. McCain is liked but not trusted.

Mentioned as possible candidates were Sens. Chuck Hagel and Richard G. Lugar, as well as former senator Warren Rudman.

Moreover, Kerry reportedly discussed the job with Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in the final days of the vice presidential search this summer, according to a Democrat familiar with that conversation. Richardson, however, says he is not interested in any Cabinet job.

"The Kerry campaign staff should concentrate on winning the election before speculating on Cabinet positions," Richardson told the Post.

A dark-horse candidate for secretary of defense, the Post reports, is Richard L. Armitage, Bush's second-in-command at the State Department.

Armitage is believed to be hostile to the Bush administration's Iraq policy and the source of criticism against Rumsfeld and Cheney in the Washington press corps.

According to the Post, among those possible candidates for top jobs in a Kerry administration are: