President Obama’s nomination of Senator John Kerry (MA-D) to be the next Secretary of State likely paves the way for Senator Robert Menendez (NJ-D) to replace Kerry as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Menendez is currently the third-ranking Democrat on the committee; however, the committee’s second-ranking Democrat, Senator Barbara Boxer (CA-D), already heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and cannot chair two committees. Senator Kerry, who first came to the Senate in 1985 and has had a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee ever since, became chairman in 2009. Recently, his focus has been on Afghanistan,…