Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama nominates Senator John Kerry for the next secretary of state on Dec. 21, 2012.

John Kerry, President Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of State, will appear today at a confirmation hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee, the panel the Massachusetts Democrat leads.

It would be quite the sight to see chairman Kerry question nominee Kerry, or just gavel the hearing to order before taking a seat at the witness table. That’s not going to happen, obviously, as Kerry’s confirmation hearing will be led by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who will become committee chairman if Kerry wins Senate confirmation.

Kerry isn’t the first chairman of a Senate committee to appear before the same panel as a Cabinet nominee.

In January 1993, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas was Finance Committee chairman when President-elect Bill Clinton nominated him for Treasury Secretary. Bentsen appeared at a confirmation hearing led by Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.

Moynihan said at the hearing that he had “been asked to serve as acting chairman by our chairman, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who appears before us, of course, as the nominee of the president-elect for the position of the Secretary of the Treasury.” (You can watch that hearing here, courtesy of C-Span’s excellent online video archive.)

In January 1989, former Senator John Tower, a Texas Republican nominated for Defense Secretary by President George H.W. Bush, began his confirmation hearings before the Armed Services Committee, the panel Tower led from 1981 to 1985.

“Senator Tower is well-known to the members of this committee, having served on it with distinction for 20 years, including four years as chairman,” Senator Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat who led the committee, said on the first day of Tower’s confirmation hearing.

Despite an auspicious beginning before his former colleagues, Tower had a rocky confirmation process, and the Democratic-led Senate rejected his nomination. (Texas colleague Bentsen was one of just three Democrats who voted for Tower). Dick Cheney became Defense Secretary.

Original post is Nominee Kerry Before Chairman Kerry’s Committee by Political Capital.

Photograph by David Goldman/AP Photo

People arrive on a school bus at Newtown High School for a memorial vigil attended by President Barack Obama for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

President Barack Obama will assign Vice President Joe Biden to lead efforts to find ways to curb gun violence after the Dec. 14 massacre at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school, according to a White House official. Obama will make a statement outlining his administration’s review of potential responses this morning.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee gets a closed-door briefing on the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, after review panel found “grossly inadequate” security there.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank hold a signing ceremony with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan following two days of talks on intellectual property rights, industrial policies and regulatory obstacles that hinder American companies in China.

Over on the fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner aims to use a vote on his alternate budget proposal to highlight Republican opposition to tax increases sought by Obama, as the two sides negotiate a larger fiscal deal. Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, holds a press conference on the status of the discussions at the National Press Club.

The House is scheduled to consider 23 bills including a Medicare identity theft measure and changes to the Hatch Act, while the Senate debates a $60.4 billion supplemental disaster-relief appropriation for superstorm Sandy.

Also today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce holds a discussion on innovation in agriculture, with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Cargill Inc. CEO Gregory Page and Monsanto Co. Executive VP Jerry Steiner. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg holds a media briefing before meeting with states on compounding pharmacies. And the Commerce Department issues a final ruling on anti-dumping and countervailing duties for washers imported from Mexico and South Korea.

And Director Steven Spielberg and actor Daniel Day-Lewis will attend a special screening this evening of “Lincoln” for members of Congress.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Newtown Response by Political Capital.