A top GOP critic pushed back Sunday on charges that Republican efforts to investigate last year's Benghazi attack are designed to inflict political damage on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Hillary Clinton's not a target," said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on NBC's Meet the Press. "President Obama is not a target."

Issa,  who heads a panel probing the assault on the diplomatic outpost that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, said he will seek depositions from Benghazi review board heads Ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

The interagency process of modifying talking points in the wake of the attack scrubbed the fact that the incident was "a terrorist attack from the get-go," Issa said Sunday. 

"The American people were effectively lied to for a period of about a month," he charged. "That's important to get right."

Issa's committee held a high-profile hearing last week on the Benghazi attack. The California Republican claimed Sunday that Pickering - the man who led an independent review of the attacks on behalf of the State Department - refused to testify at that hearing.

Pickering flatly denied that he was unwilling to appear.

"I said the day before the hearings I was willing to appear, to come from the very hearings [Issa] excluded me from," Pickering told NBC's David Gregory. "We were told the majority said I was not welcome at that hearing; I could come at some other time."

Issa said he was unaware of Pickering's late notice, which the ambassador said he communicated through the White House, but added that a private deposition - which he intends to formally request Monday from the ambassador - is the more appropriate way to begin the inquiry.

"The fact is we don't want to have some sort of a stage show," Issa said.

Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said in a statement that Oversight committee Republicans never received a request for Pickering to testify. 

"We challenge him to name the White House official who he was in contact with and the White House official whom he falsely says relayed his interest in testifying to Chairman Issa," Hill said. 

Republicans have been dogged in their questioning of the administration's response to the attack, with leaked documents revealing last week that officials at the State Department suggested edits to talking points that erased references to terrorist groups.

While Hillary Clinton has stated publicly that she was not involved in that editing process, criticism of the former State Department chief and much-discussed possible presidential candidate has been a strong subtext of the Benghazi debate.

Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said on Meet the Press that Issa's panel has deliberately put Clinton's ambitions in its crosshairs.

"My concern is when Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned 32 times in a hearing, then the point of the hearing is to discredit the Secretary of State, who has very high popularity and may well be a candidate for president," Feinstein said.

Likely 2016 Republican candidate Sen. Rand Paul excoriated Clinton in a speech Friday in key campaign state Iowa, saying her role in the Benghazi episode "should preclude her from holding higher office."

"I think that's nonsense," Feinstein said of Paul's claim. "And I think the American people will think that's nonsense." 

This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 11:28 AM EDT

On his first day as Secretary of State, John Kerry joked about being a man in what’s been a woman’s agency for nearly a decade.

"Here's the big question before the country and the world and the State Department after the last eight years: can a man actually run the State Department?” Kerry told a large and enthusiastic crowd of Foreign Service Officers and staff at Foggy Bottom. “As the saying goes, ‘I have big heels to fill’.”

Of course, Kerry was talking about replacing Hillary Clinton (D) and Condoleezza Rice (R) before that in the Bush administration, but going slightly further back, there hasn’t been a white male to head State in 16 years, since Warren Christopher under Clinton.

Establishing his "bona fides" with the diplomats, he waved his first diplomatic passport: given him when he was a 12-year-old boy traveling to Berlin with his father and family for their assignment at the post-war U.S. embassy. 

He even told a story about using it to ride his bike into East Berlin on the wrong side of the wall, saying he got a tongue-lashing later from his father, who told him he could have become an international incident. His passport was lifted, and he was grounded.

The State Department has been besieged by bad news in recent months – from the killing of U.S. Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans at a consulate in Benghazi, Libya, to the suicide bombing in front of the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

“So I pledge to you: I will not let their patriotism and their bravery be obscured by politics, No. 1,” he said of those who died in Benghazi. “No. 2, I guarantee you that beginning this morning, when I report for duty upstairs, everything I do will be focused on the security and safety of our people."

Kerry ended on an idealistic note.

“What other job can you have where you get up every day and advance the cause of nation and also keep faith with the ideals of your country on which it is founded, and most critically meet our obligations to our fellow travelers on this planet?” he said. “That's as good as it gets, and I'm proud to be part of it with you. So now let's get to work.”

After Kerry’s speech, he placed calls to his counterparts in Britain, France, and Germany, three of America’s closest allies.

After meeting with senior staff, Kerry met the Afghan National Institute of Music Group which was in the building today. Later, he will briefed on the implementation of the Accountability Review Board’s recommendations on how to prevent another attack like the one in Benghazi.

As John Kerry prepares to take his place Friday in the long line of leaders -- including Thomas Jefferson, Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton -- who have served as secretary of state, he and President Barack Obama will face some familiar overseas challenges from the past four years:

• Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions;
• North Korea’s erratic nuclear-armed behavior;
• China’s growing economic power and its potential leverage as a holder of U.S. Treasury bonds;
• The horrific civil war in Syria which threatens to spill over into neighboring countries.

And there’s always the specter of a sudden, unexpected international crisis.

But there are also new and developing challenges for the administration and for Kerry, who will be sworn in Friday afternoon, such as the U.S. role in a country that few Americans have heard of or could find on a map: Mali, in north central Africa.

There, the Obama administration has broadened the post-Sept. 11 struggle against jihadists by sharing intelligence with the French, as well as providing them airlift and re-fueling support, to facilitate the French military intervention against Islamists.

This military assistance underscores again why the United States remains -- to use the well-worn phrase Clinton used in a farewell speech Thursday -- the “indispensable nation.”

When the U.S. or its allies seek to intervene in a place such as Mali, only the United States has an adequate fleet of C-17 cargo planes and KC-135 tanker aircraft to make such an exercise of power possible; the French wouldn't be able to conduct the Mali operation by themselves.

This week the Obama administration also signed a "status of forces" accord with Mali’s next-door neighbor, Niger, allowing U.S. troops to operate in that country and suggesting a new chapter in U.S. engagement in Africa even as Obama is moving to withdraw most U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The Mali operation is in part an outgrowth of the “lead from behind” U.S. role in the NATO operation to topple Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Professor Michael Mandelbaum of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and author of “The Frugal Superpower” said last October, “In order to get the full benefits of tyrant removal, it may be necessary to put American troops on the ground and that we’re not going to do.”

But with Gadhafi removed from power, his weapons depots were “liberated” and his arms proliferated all over North Africa, including to jihadists in Mali and Algeria, where earlier this month a group of militants attacked a natural gas plant, killing dozens of hostages.

The Pentagon will be Chuck Hagel’s problem (upon confirmation as defense secretary) not Kerry’s, but the new secretary of state is especially worried that America’s role as military enforcer has been hurting its standing in the eyes of other nations.

Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his confirmation hearing that “American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone. We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role we have had to play since Sept. 11, a role that was thrust upon us.”

He also knows that the traditional U.S. role as a preacher of open economies, free trade and dependable sovereign credit is being undermined by its undisciplined fiscal policy, threatening, he said last week, “my credibility as a diplomat -- and our credibility as nation.”

Kerry’s role as a diplomat and international coalition builder will be difficult for another reason. In the past, when there was a specific threat, American leaders were able to form multinational coalitions to defeat that enemy, as in 1990, when Saddam Hussein’s armies invaded Kuwait. 

But two new threats are more diffuse and can’t be attacked on a battlefield:

• Demographic pressure in the developing world: A surging younger generation in developing countries spurs conflict and unrest, particularly in the Middle East where those citizens have played a large role in the so-called “Arab Spring.” In his confirmation hearing, Kerry noted that in his visits over the years to Syria, “President Assad said to me, I have 500,000 kids who turn 18 every year, and I don't have a place to put them; I don't have jobs for them.”
• Climate change: How could Kerry persuade the Chinese to agree to enforceable commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions that might cause disruption in an economy that demands job growth? All Kerry could offer last week is a hope that he and the leaders in Beijing “can find a better sense of the mutuality of our interests and the commonality of goals” so that they could work towards an international accord on greenhouse gas.

Related:

Senate votes to confirm Kerry as secretary of state

The Senate confirmed President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass, to be secretary of state Tuesday. The vote was 94 to 3, with three Republicans – Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. – voting against him.

“Sen. Kerry has a long history of liberal positions that are not consistent with a majority of Texans,” said Cornyn spokesman Drew Brandewie.

Kerry stood on the Senate floor as his colleagues voted on his confirmation. Kerry himself voted "present."

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., emerges after a unanimous vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving him to become America's next top diplomat, replacing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013.

Tuesday’s vote sets the stage for Kerry’s resignation from the Senate where he has served for 28 years. A special election will be held in Massachusetts, probably in June, to replace him.

At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday morning, incoming committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, D- N.J., praised Kerry’s “impressive grasp and depth and thoughtfulness on the critical issues” he will be facing in his new job. Among those issues is the U.S. response to the civil war in Syria in which more than 60,000 have been killed. At his confirmation hearing last week, Kerry came under bipartisan pressure on Syria.

Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del., a Foreign Relations Committee member who was part of a bipartisan Senate delegation that recently toured the Middle East, complained to Kerry that U.S. humanitarian aid intended for Syrian refugees “has not reached the people on the ground.”

On Tuesday Obama announced that he had approved an additional $155 million in humanitarian aid for Syrians and refugees fleeing the violence in the country. In comments to reporters Tuesday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called this “a Band-Aid. We don’t even know – because of our lack of involvement in Syria – whether that aid actually gets to the Syrian freedom fighters. We know that a lot of it previously has gone through Damascus and has been diverted.”

McCain called the lack of U.S. intervention in supporting an overthrow of the regime of Bashar al-Assad “a shameful chapter in American history.”

But McCain said he has had many conversations with Kerry about Syria “and I think he is at least more concerned than anybody else in the administration.”

McCain, Coons and others want the U.S. aid to go directly to the Syrian opposition rather than being routed through the United Nations and the Syrian government.

Some senators are also urging Obama to impose a no-fly zone and to provide weapons to fighters who are trying to overthrow Assad.

President Barack Obama said he sat down for an unusual joint interview with his outgoing secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, "to have a chance to publicly say thank you."

"It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I'm going to miss her — wish she was sticking around," Obama said in an interview with "60 Minutes" to air on CBS this Sunday.

"I want the country to appreciate what an extraordinary role she's played in the course of my administration," he added. 

The president's high praise will no doubt stoke speculation about Clinton's own chances to succeed Obama in 2016. Many Democrats hope that Clinton, a former rival of Obama's during the 2008 primary, will seek the nomination; the outgoing secretary of state leaves office at the height of her popularity. 

Clinton herself acknowledged that the joint sit-down interview would have seemed rare after her '08 battle against Obama. 

"A few years ago it would have been seen as improbable because we had that very long, hard primary campaign," he said. 

But she praised the president for his work, and said she wanted to serve out of love of country. Neither Clinton nor Obama addressed the former first lady's possible future political plans in the clip released by CBS.

John Moore / Getty Images

Sens. John Kerry and John McCain during the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 21, 2013 in Washington.

One day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted a sometimes fractious hearing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over last September's attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the panel holds its confirmation hearing Thursday morning on the man President Barack Obama has chosen to succeed her: Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Wednesday’s hearing with Clinton in the witness chair was marked by some anger and recriminations over the attack in Libya that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Clinton at times clashed with Republicans over the administration’s version of events in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, at one point forcefully arguing with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., over the precise origins or motives of the attackers.

She intensely asked, "Was it because of a protest or is it because of guys out for a walk one night and they decide they go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?"

Clinton also sketched the strategic landscape that Kerry will face in his new job if he’s confirmed by the Senate, as is nearly certain.

Clinton told the committee that the United States cannot allow the North African nation of Mali, just south of Algeria, to become a base of operations for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), warning of the risk of AQIM attacks on the United States itself.

“We are in for a struggle,” she predicted. “But it is a necessary struggle. We cannot permit northern Mali to become a safe haven. People say to me all the time, well, AQIM hasn't attacked the United States. Well, before 9-11, 2001, we hadn't been attacked on our homeland since, I guess, the War of 1812 and Pearl Harbor. So you can't say, well, because they haven't done something they're not going to do it.”

She also sounded the alarm about the proliferation of weapons from caches in Libya that were “liberated” after Moammar Gadhafi was toppled, with U.S. and NATO help, in 2011.

“Libya was awash in weapons” before Gadhafi was overthrown, she said. “Obviously, there were additional weapons introduced. But the vast, vast majority came out of Gadhafi warehouses ... and then went on the black market, were seized by militias, seized by other groups, and have made their way out of Libya into other countries in the region, and have made their way to Syria, we believe.”

She said the Algerian terrorists who held foreigners hostage at a natural gas plant last week, killing 37 of them, were armed with weapons from Libya.

Syria a looming challenge
Clinton also highlighted another looming challenge for Obama and Kerry: the civil war in Syria in which 60,000 people have been killed. Obama has decided to not impose a no-fly zone against the regime of President Bashar Assad, but he now faces growing bipartisan pressure to give more aid to the Syrian opposition.

On Tuesday, a group of three Democratic and two Republican senators just back from a trip to the Middle East urged Obama to send more aid to the Syrian refugees; some urged him to impose a no-fly zone and to provide weapons to anti-Assad fighters.

“We are all in agreement that more needs to be done to assist militarily the opposition within Syria,” said one of those senators, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He added that the debate over what the Obama administration ought to be doing in Syria “is going to be reinvigorated” because the fall of Assad, thought to be imminent a year ago, now is in doubt.

“Clearly now, he is using his air force for nothing more than the slaughter and massacre of his own people,” Blumenthal said. “And the United States ought to be finding a way to either disarm or deflect or somehow diminish that power.”

Clinton said Wednesday in her Senate testimony that, “It is a red line for this administration with respect to Syria concerning the use of chemical weapons. Syria, as you probably know, in addition to having the fourth largest army before this revolution has a very significant supply of chemical and biological weapons.”

The Obama administration, she said, is trying “to prevent those from falling into the wrong hands, Jihadist hands, Hezbollah hands .. .”

She added, “This Pandora's box, if you will, of weapons coming out of these countries in the Middle East and North Africa is the source of one of our biggest threats.”

Kerry, a member of the Senate since 1985, is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but will be ceding that post to Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

A Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and won 59 million votes, but lost to President George W. Bush.

In announcing the nomination, Obama said on Dec. 21, “John’s entire life has prepared him for this role.  As the son of a Foreign Service officer, he has a deep respect for the men and women of the State Department -- the role they play in advancing our interests and values, the risks that they undertake and the sacrifices that they make along with their families.”  

Related: Clinton takes responsibility in Benghazi attack, clashes with Republicans

With the congressional storm over debt and spending temporarily calmed after the fiscal cliff fight, the political world's attention now turns to the administration's shuffling of top agency jobs at the start of President Barack Obama's second term.

The president's cabinet includes 15 heads of federal departments, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. As Obama’s first term comes to an end, there remains plenty of uncertainty about as to the status of much of the cabinet, including some of the top positions in the government.  Here’s what we know so far: 

Secretary of State: Obama has already announced Sen. John Kerry as his pick to succeed departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, choosing the Foreign Relations Committee head after his other reported top choice, Susan Rice, withdrew from consideration for the post. Kerry is expected to be confirmed easily by his Senate colleagues.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Barack Obama announces the nomination of Sen. John Kerry as Secretary of State to succeed Hillary Clinton, at the White House in Washington Dec. 21, 2012.

Secretary of Defense: An administration official has confirmed to NBC's Chuck Todd that President Obama plans to nominate former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and Vietnam veteran, for the Defense secretary position on Monday. Hagel would replace Leon Panetta at the helm of Defense Department.

The Nebraska lawmaker faces significant opposition from some in his own party who are wary of Hagel's past statements about Israel. Hagel was also forced to issue an apology after foes resurfaced a 1998 comment in which Hagel criticized an "aggressively gay" political appointee.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week, Obama praised Hagel but said he has not made a final decision about who he wants for the top Pentagon job. 

"I haven't made a decision about who to nominate," Obama said. "And my number one criteria will be who's going to do the best job in helping to secure America."

If nominated, Hagel would be boosted by two heavyweights other than the president: Vice President Joe Biden and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed. 

Other possibilities reportedly discussed for the post were Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy, or Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Treasury Secretary: Current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the final remaining member of Obama's original economic team, has signaled that he will step down after the inauguration, which could leave the department without a confirmed chief during the coming showdown over the debt ceiling. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget, is considered to be Geithner's likely successor.

But as NBC's Political Unit notes, the White House may think twice about handling a confirmation process at the same time as yet another round of brinkmanship over the government's legal borrowing power.

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Barack Obama walks off stage with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner after speaking about his meeting on infrastructure investment, in the Rose Garden of the White House in this Oct. 11, 2010 file photo.

CIA Director: While not technically a Cabinet position, also in the mix will be a new intelligence guru to replace former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair with his biographer.

In the running for that job are John Brennan, an influential White House adviser on counter-terrorism, as well as acting CIA Director Michael Morrell.

Other Cabinet positions:  Along with the candidates for those high-ranking positions, there will likely be other openings throughout the administration, with possible departures from other agencies including the Energy and Commerce departments.

If Interior Department head Ken Salazar chooses to leave, former Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, retiring Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington, and outgoing Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire are on the shortlist to replace him,  according to a Democratic insider.

Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson has also announced her departure at the end of January, setting up an open position at an organization frequently targeted by Republican foes of federal regulations. (The EPA chief job is not among the 15 official Cabinet positions but is awarded the status of "cabinet rank.")

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was released last night from the hospital after being treated for a blood clot, is looking forward to coming back to work next week, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said today.

"Some of the senior staff who spoke to her about half an hour ago say that she's sounding terrific, upbeat, raring to go. She's looking forward to getting back to the office. She is very much planning to do so next week, and we'll have further precise details about that as she continues to make progress," Nuland said.

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Nuland said Clinton's family has been with her at home, but didn't have any other details about visitors to share. Nuland said she didn't have any new details on the medical side of things, but instead referenced a previous statement by Clinton's doctors advising against international travel.

"It sounds as if the doctors' preference is that she not make any international trips for a little while," she said.

Nuland called the number of messages from international leaders wishing Clinton well a "tsunami." Nuland didn't have any calls to international leaders to read out, but said she is sure Clinton will be back on the phone with her counterparts soon.

Clinton has said she is committed to testify on the Hill regarding Benghazi, but Nuland didn't have a date to announce. "We are working with the committees on an appropriate set of dates," she said.

Nuland was also asked about Clinton's likely successor. She didn't have an update on when Sen. John Kerry's confirmation hearing would be held, but said the State Department is also working on that date.

"We are also working with the Hill on an appropriate date for the hearing. It goes to the calendar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which hasn't yet been set," Nuland said.

“There’s a lot of questions to be answered, including some that only Secretary Clinton can answer,” Rubio told NBC News after he left the hearing. “We need to know beyond the assistant secretary level -- where the report places most of the blame -- what did these senior officials know after the repeated meetings (with the Libyan prime minster and other Libyan officials). Libya was not some remote outpost somewhere… It was a place that the U.S. was heavily engaged in militarily.”

He said the possibility that the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi did not come up in meetings between Clinton and the Libyan officials or in meetings between other State Department officials and the Libyans “is deeply troubling to me.”

Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has resigned and three other officials have been relieved of duty, the department said late Wednesday.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said "accountability has been brought to bear with regard to four individuals who are very senior” at the State Department. But he added, “they're not taking the fall" for the attack.

Clinton has been out of the public eye for several days due to illness and a concussion she suffered after fainting. 

Substituting for Clinton in testimony before the committee Thursday was Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

“All of you who know Hillary know that she would rather be here today,” said committee chairman Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is likely to be President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Clinton. “I assure you it is not her choice she is not here today and she looks forward to appearing before the committee in January. I want to make that clear.”

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Benghazi attack Thursday afternoon, Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R- Fla., said Clinton “has every intention of testifying before our committee by mid-January as soon as she gets the go-ahead from her doctor.”

And Ros-Lehtinen said the State Department’s claim that Congress had not provided sufficient funding was not persuasive. “Perhaps it should take a closer look at the (State Department) money that is being lavished on global climate change, a culinary diplomacy program, and other favored projects,” she said. “This money could have been used for providing diplomatic security…..”

Ros-Lehtinen said that the State Department was spending nearly $1 billion on global climate change programs. And she said that just the day before the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Clinton was “engaged in launching a new program called the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, where Americans chefs will travel the world to engage in ‘culinary diplomacy.’ Certainly this is an example of misplaced priorities.”

Burns told the committees that report by the Accountability Review Board (ARB) “takes a clear-eyed look at serious, systemic problems. Problems which are unacceptable. Problems for which – as Secretary Clinton has said -- we take responsibility.”

He said told the State Department has “already begun to fix” the security lapses that allowed the Benghazi attack to succeed.

On Tuesday the ARB report blamed State Department officials for “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” that led to the protection for the Benghazi facility that was “grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

Kerry said that “the report pulls no punches.” He said that “clearly mistakes were made” and that “there were clear warning signs” that the US facility in Benghazi was in danger in the weeks leading up to the attack.

“We get this right about 99 percent of the time,” Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides told the committee. “We would like to be at 100 percent.”

Kerry said that for years the Congress had underfunded the State Department and noted that the international affairs budget is less than one-tenth that of the Defense Department.

Kerry noted that the ARB report calls for spending $2.3 billion a year for 10 years to protect State Department personnel overseas.

But Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., slated to be the senior Republican on the panel in 2013, vigorously dissented from that view. He told the hearing “he was “dismayed that this hearing has already focused on the need for additional money, which may well be needed,” but since the committee had not done a thorough review of how the State Department spends its approximately $50 billion in annual funding, “we have no idea whether the State Department is using its money wisely or not.”

He also asked why Clinton had not asked Congress before the attack to allow her to re-allocate State Department funding to ensure the Benghazi facility was secure.

He added later that there was a 16-person Defense Department security team in Libya who could have been shifted from Tripoli to Benghazi – and at no cost to the State Department other than lodging. “This has nothing to do with money,” he said.

Kerry said that American diplomats need to engage personally with the people in the nations where they are stationed, especially in the Middle East. “We have to be on the ground, outside the wire, reaching out to those people,” he said.

“Bad things have happened before and bad things will happen again unfortunately in the future,” he said. “We do not want to concertina-wire America off from the world.”

Rubio told NBC News that there was larger lesson in the Benghazi attack: “One of the factors that led to the Sept. 11 attack was “the inability of the Libyan central government to have any control over militias” and that, he argued, was “a direct result of a policy decision made to ‘lead from behind.’”

He said the Obama administration got engaged “too late” and “not decisively enough” in Libya. “The reason why there are all these multiple militias in Libya is because this was a protracted conflict that created the opportunity and the space for these militias to form – similar to what we’re seeing now in Syria.”

If the United States had gotten decisively engaged in Libya, Rubio contended, the conflict “would have ended a lot sooner and the opportunity for these militias to form would have been diminished.”

Since his election victory last month, President Barack Obama has suffered a series of foreign and national security policy and personnel mishaps and embarrassments.  First, there was the sudden resignation of CIA director David Petraeus after he admitted having an extramarital affair. Next came the withdrawal of U.N. envoy Susan Rice from consideration as the next secretary of state in the wake of misleading comments she made about the Sept. 11 attacks on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya.

Related: Key State official resigns in wake of Benghazi report

And Obama’s troubles continued this week as the five-member Accountability Review Board (ARB) appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to investigate the Benghazi attack issued its findings. The panel said, “Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” in the State Department led to a “security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

In the attack Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans -- Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith -- were killed.

Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., slated to be the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee in 2013, told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Wednesday that Clinton “has to come before us. I think it’s imperative.” 

Corker and other members of Congress were given a classified briefing on the report and afterwards he insisted that Clinton must testify before she leaves her post and the Senate votes on confirmation of her successor.

The secretary was slated to attend briefings on the Hill this week but has been recovering from the flu and a concussion she suffered in a recent fainting episode.

Once rumored to be that successor at the State Department was Ambassador Rice. But she took herself out of contention after some Republican senators said her statements that the Benghazi attack was a response to an anti-Islamic video were misleading. They implied that she and the president had tried to keep voters from learning the truth about the attack before Election Day.

With Rice having bowed out, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seems to be a near-certainty as Obama’s nominee to head the State Department.

The Benghazi review board was headed by veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering, who has served in his 40-year career as an ambassador to six nations. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen was the vice chairman of the board.

The unclassified portions of the ARB report which were released Wednesday painted a picture of a State Department under Clinton which was not functioning well.

The panel placed responsibility on officials in her department for failing to adequately protect the facility in Benghazi.

The number of State Department security staff in Benghazi on the day of the attack and in the months leading up to it was inadequate, the board found, “despite repeated requests from Special Mission Benghazi and Embassy Tripoli for additional staffing.”

Gary Cameron / Reuters

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington on the deaths of U.S. embassy staff in Benghazi in this September 12, 2012 file photo.

And it said that despite efforts by the Defense Department and other agencies, “There simply was not enough time for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference.”

In the aftermath of the report, an official told NBC News on Wednesday that Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell is resigning.

On Wednesday, after the closed briefing by Pickering and Mullen, Kerry praised the work of the ARB.

“Secretary Clinton committed to doing this report and said it would be a completely unvarnished appraisal, which it is,” Kerry said.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the unclassified version of the report “omits important information the public has a right to know.  This includes details about the perpetrators of the attack in Libya as well as the less-than-noble reasons contributing to State Department decisions to deny security resources.”

He also said, “In light of the report, I am concerned that the carefully vetted testimony of senior State Department officials at the October hearing was part of an intentional effort to mislead the American people.”

While tussling continues over the State Department, the question of who will lead the Defense Department when Leon Panetta departs also remains unresolved, and now questions are being raised about the presumed front-runner for that post.

On Wednesday the Washington Post, which usually supports Obama on its editorial page, ran an editorial opposing the yet-to-be announced nomination of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel to replace Panetta. 

The editorial called Hagel “isolated in his views about Iran during his time in the Senate. He repeatedly voted against sanctions, opposing even those aimed at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which at the time was orchestrating devastating bomb attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq. Mr. Hagel argued that direct negotiations, rather than sanctions, were the best means to alter Iran’s behavior.”

The editorial also noted that “Obama has said that his policy is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that containment is not an option. Mr. Hagel has taken a different view, writing in a 2008 book that ‘the genie of nuclear weapons is already out of the bottle, no matter what Iran does.’ ”

It added that if Obama decides to use military force to try to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal, it would be doubtful whether Hagel would be “ready to support and effectively implement such a decision” if he were defense secretary.

Earlier, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens assailed Hagel for saying "the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here (on Capitol Hill)." Stephens said that and other remarks by Hagel about Israel were “insipid and insinuating” and cast a slur on Jewish-Americans.

Some Republican senators also expressed skepticism about Hagel becoming defense secretary but since his nomination has yet to be announced, it’s not clear whether the Senate would confirm him.

The assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has resigned and three other officials have been relieved of duty after a report criticized the State Department over the attacks on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, the department said late Wednesday.

State Department spokesperson Victoria J. Nuland confirmed that Eric Boswell had resigned and said three other officials had been relieved of duties pending . Two of the others worked in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.

Nuland did not name the other three, but a U.S. official told NBC News that one was Charlene Lamb, Boswell’s deputy assistant secretary of state for international programs. Earlier reports had said that Boswell, Lamb and another unidentified official had resigned.

The resignations come after the release of the Accountability Review Board Report on the attacks on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, Libya, which faulted the State Department and specifically the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for "grossly inadequate" security.

Here’s Nuland’s full statement:

"The ARB identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Asia Affairs.  The Secretary has accepted Eric Boswell's decision to resign as Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, effective immediately.   The other three individuals have been relieved of their current duties.  All four individuals have been placed on administrative leave pending further action."

Jason Reed / Reuters

Sen. John Kerry waves at the end of his speech during the final session of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on September 6.

Updated at 7:01 a.m. ET: When he ran for president, many in the GOP slammed Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., pilloried for his late opposition to the Vietnam War and his famed flip on the conflict in Iraq. But, as criticism mounted against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as the apparent frontrunner to become the next secretary of State, Kerry was publicly embraced by Republican colleagues in the Senate as a comparatively slam-dunk candidate to replace Hillary Clinton.

Now that Rice has withdrawn her nomination to the post, as NBC News reported exclusively on Thursday, all eyes turn to the onetime Democratic nominee. An official close to the process told NBC's Andrea Mitchell late Thursday that Kerry is now almost certain to get the job. "There were two people on the list," the person said. "Two minus one is one." 

In her withdrawal letter to the president, Rice said she was convinced her nomination would prove "lengthy, disruptive and costly" as Republicans have raised questions about her role in the public response to the 9/11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  The exclusive NBC News interview with Rice aired Thursday on Rock Center with Brian Williams.

In a statement, Kerry praised Rice as an "extraordinarily capable and dedicated public servant" and alluded to his own past political battles.

"As someone who has weathered my share of political attacks and understands on a personal level just how difficult politics can be, I've felt for her throughout these last difficult weeks, but I also know that she will continue to serve with great passion and distinction," he said. 

EXCLUSIVE: Rice drops out of running for secretary of state

Elected to the Senate in 1984, Kerry rose to national prominence as a foreign policy expert when he returned to the Senate after his failed 2004 presidential bid. The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee since 2009, he has made high-profile visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan and helped negotiate the new arms treaty with Russia that was signed in 2010.

Respected in the upper chamber and nationally as a shaper of the nation's foreign policy, Republicans have indicated that Kerry would face little opposition to be confirmed to the secretary of State post. "I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues," said Republican Susan Collins, R-Maine, late last month. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a close ally of former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, declared that Kerry would have "an easy time" being confirmed in the Senate. 

Kerry's confirmation would likely not come without some minor re-litigation of past controversies.  One of Congress's richest members, he was painted as an out-of-touch patrician by his presidential foes. The onetime Navy lieutenant was criticized by opponents during his campaign for his high-profile protests of the Vietnam War, including his nationally-covered challenge to a congressional panel in 1971 to defend the deaths of men "for a mistake."

Kerry worked closely with the president in the just-finished election, playing Romney in debate preparations and had been seen as a potential choice to head either the State Department or the Department of Defense. Earlier today a top Pentagon official told NBC News that former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel appeared to be the likely choice for secretary of Defense.

But the main headache for Democrats if Kerry is appointed will be the triggering of a special election in Massachusetts next year to replace him. Democrats recently celebrated the ousting of Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who won a January 2010 special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Elizabeth Warren bested Brown in the heavily blue state by a margin of 54 percent to Brown's 46 percent.

If Kerry is picked, Brown will be viewed as a formidable Republican candidate to replace him. A wider bench of Democrats, including former Senate candidate Martha Coakley, may vie for the nomination.

But whoever wins the potential replacement race would have a grueling path, as would voters weary of statewide contests. Another special election would be the state's second in three years, and Kerry's successor would be up for re-election again in 2014.