THE CHICKENS, AS YET UNHATCHED . . .

Should Kerry pull it off, I'm thinking his part of his cabinet may look like this:

STATE: Richard Holbrooke
NS ADVISOR: Rand Beers
HOMELAND SEC.: Richard Clarke
UN AMBASSADOR: Jamie Rubin
INTERIOR: Robert Kennedy, Jr.
ATTNY GENERAL: Eliot Spitzer

Just off the top of my head, mind you.

Holbrooke was ambassador to Germany (not while I was around) and my former colleagues said, without exception, that he was a real asshole. Not good with the help and not particularly keen on doing his job. After Holbrooke, the US had no ambassador for a time and then John Kornblum got the gig. He's really popular over here (still on TV from time to time), not least because he speaks excellent German. I expect to see Kornblum get some sort of choice gig. Perhaps ambassador to NATO or maybe UN ambassador.