IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

What we're reading: Friday, December 21, 2012

President Obama will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Friday to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. walks to the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012.

President Obama will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Friday to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Kerry will be the only member of the national security team named on Friday, despite rumors that Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., is a frontrunner for Secretary of Defense.

After Speaker John Boehner's 'Plan B' failed to get enough support from his Republican caucus to go to a vote Thursday, Boehner was asked in a Friday press conference whether he's concerned about the future of his speakership. Boehner replied:

No, I'm not. Listen you've all heard me say this, and I've told my colleagues this: If you do the right things everyday for the right reasons the right things will happen. And while we may have not been able to get the votes last night to avoid 99.81% of the tax increases, I don't think, they weren't taking that out on me. They were dealing with the perception that somebody may accuse them of raising taxes.

After days of silence following the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA held a press conference Friday, in which Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for armed police officers in every school. "The only thing that protects us from a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said.

And Washington paid its respects to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, Friday at the National Cathedral. Former President Bill Clinton honored the memory of the war hero and second longest serving Senator:

He was a wise and good man. The reason he could be courageous without being sanctimonious, the reason he could be so...he could be friends across the aisle...because that is who he was. A whole person, united by his parts. They blew his arm off in WWII, but they never lay a finger on his heart or his mind.