Kerry: 'I have huge heels to fill'
By Elise Labott
Secretary of State John Kerry says that he has "big heels to fill" as Hillary Clinton's successor and promised to keep U.S. diplomats abroad safe.
Kerry was greeted by cheering employees at the State Department as he arrived for his first day of work on Monday.
As the first man in the post in eight years, Kerry referred to Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, his two most recent predecessors, asking: "Can a man actually run the State Department?"
"I don't know," he joked. "As the saying goes, I have big heels to fill."
Nothing the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, Kerry said the protection of American diplomats would be one of his top priorities.
"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," he said.
He pledged not to "let their patriotism and their bravery be obscured by politics."
Kerry told agency employees that he and President Barack Obama needed their help to make America safer and the world more prosperous and peaceful.
The son of a diplomat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 28 years said that while the Senate may be in his blood, Foreign Service and diplomacy are in his genes.
He spoke of his time as a child in Germany, where his family lived while his father was posted on assignment.
Kerry pulled out his first diplomatic passport, issued when he was 11 in 1954, recounting how he used it a year later to ride his bicycle across the divided capital of Berlin and into the Soviet-controlled eastern part of the city.
"If the tabloids today knew I had done that, I can see the headlines that say, 'Kerry's Early Communist Connections!"' he joked.
He said his parents were mad at him, telling him he could have caused a diplomatic incident for crossing the Iron Curtain.
Kerry described the experience as his first lesson in democracy.
There were very few people," he told the crowd. "There was no joy in those streets. And when I came back, I felt this remarkable sense of relief and a great lesson about the virtue of freedom and the virtue of the principles and ideals that we live by and that drive us."
Kerry spoke of his family's connection with the State Department on other ways too.
“Exhilarating to walk into @StateDept today and get to work with remarkable team…Dad on mind! –JK,” he wrote in tweet on Monday.
Kerry was sworn into office in a private ceremony last Friday before a more formal swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday at the State Department.
He is expected to spend the remainder of the week holding meetings and reaching out to world leaders.
On Monday he spoke with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany. And over the weekend he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Canada and Mexico.
He also crashed a concert by the Afghan National Institute of Music on Monday. When told the group of musicians from Kabul was in the building, he went down to meet them, take photos and listen to their performance.
Calling them "ambassadors of peace," Kerry related to them as a fellow musician. As a young senator, Kerry played guitar in a rock band called the "Electras."
"I still play guitar," he told them. "When I go home, I love to play guitar."
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
Kerry is into that kinda thing wow go figure .
You have big heels to fill, uh? Hey, do you appreciate too big to fail, Mr. Kerry? Do you know what was President Obama failed to appreciate, Mr. Kerry?
You have big heels to fill, uh? Hey, do you appreciate too big to fail, Mr. Kerry?
He must have Pelosi's plastic surgeon. I saw him on TV last night and he has so much Botox in his face that he can hardly talk! Bizarre...
So is Kerry the new top clown in Washington, or is it still Barry?
I think he was trying to say Clinton and Rice have clown feet.
He could have also said I have big boobs to fill because the last two people to have the job were a real couple of boobs.
YEY YOU HAVE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS CLINTON LEFT, MAYBE YOU CAN HAVE YOUR BUTLER DO IT
I'm convinced people like you are secret liberals who are just trying to make right wingers look stupid. For your sake, I hope that's the case.
Hey Mike
I think they're doing pretty good on their own!
That's great of John Kerry to be so humble & polite, but I believe him to easily be the equal – and likely superior – to Clinton at this job, because he's been doing similar work for far longer than she.
Yeah. Hillary knows how to play politics, but Kerry seems much more qualified for this role. He's also a lot less polarizing.
goodness people get a grip....the man made a funny, that's all and you nincompoops take it to another level...........as for the cross dressisng, it takes one to recognize one....
By "heels" I think he was referring to the fact that the last two people to have the job were a couple of heels.
One things for sure, if he is ready to wear the "heels' he already has the bra and panties on. This administration just keeps getting better and better. They wont stop until they have no ones respect.
These women were not "heels." They were hard-working, courageous, and extremely bright. Get a grip.
They were not heels and they may have been bright but they sure screwed up alot. Those screwups had nothing to do with them being women and everything to do with them making mistakes. Kerry will be no better and time will prove that. Kerry will do more flip flops in this appointment than the Olympic Gymnastics team could manage.
Men don't wear heels.
Some men......lol
ummm.....J. Edgar Hoover?
Kerry: 'I have huge heels to fill' <~~Prior to doing that he might want to stop at a gas station and check the air pressure in his head.
Is he (Kerry) a closet pervert?! Have fun with your high heels, "Bending Forward" and with Clueless Obama rewriting your job description to HIS benefit.
The "huge heels" were only due to the size of the Hillary's calves. He can probably were traditional footwear.
What an absurd comment.
It's been 12 years since a man held the office not 8, right?
I meant 12 years since a white male had held the office.
Lord, I hope that "crossing into Communist Germany is not another grandiose lie like the one Hilary told about being under sniper fire in Bosnia.
Kerry apparently is a male chauvinist like so many men are. Isn't it cute that he said "heels" instead of "shoes" to fill. I just know the guy thinks he's really something coming up with that quip. Lousy start for someone who is supposed to represent the United States and be diplomatic. I suppose he has all the men really laughing now since the bigger the jerk the more he's admired.
I am a guy and I DO NOT respect jerks like this. He has proven his lack of worth over and over and was appointed because he is a good pawn to the administration. Dont paint us all with such a broad (sorry) brush.
As a woman who can take a joke, I thought it was kind of cute.
Mr Kerry ... two words to consider in these days of financial hardship. Tele conference. Actually its one word ... just push them together. Try it, you'll like it.
I think international diplomacy is just a weee bit more important than saving a few bucks on airfare. Just a hunch.
My, my, a cross-dresser (heels?) heading up state: sounds about right!
Kelly, you were picked not for your smartness, but your quick flip-flopness.
Kerry
Hah. You flip flopped.
Don't even try to fill her shoes. It's impossibe.She's a legend. A Clinton. Great job Hillary.You made the world a beter and safer place. Diplomacy ably restored to America. Now get ready for 2016. We're going to need you.
Yep, great job! Egypt over to terrorists: ambassador murdered: Amahdirty-goat will shortly have a-bomb: Syria a mess. Yep, great job! And the AmeriKAN moronic voters keep asking for more!
They see through rose colored glasses. The obvious is blatantly absent from their perspective and they only see what they are told. Thats why Kerry was such a good choice for this administration. He will do exactly as he is told otherwise his political life will be DoA.
just don't lie and Kerry will top clinton.
She didn't lie about anything. What evidence do you have? Don't tell me what some blowhard said...point us to the evidence.