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Official word on replacements for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in an Obama Cabinet remake could come as early as next week. The choice of Kerry would open a Massachusetts Senate seat, boosting the prospects for recently defeated Republican Sen. Scott Brown to win back a job in Washington.

Kerry, a senator for nearly three decades and the current Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, has won praise from his Senate Democratic and Republican colleagues and should be confirmed easily, if nominated. He has been Obama’s envoy to hot spots such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the administration’s point man in 2010 on a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia and was a stand-in for Republican Mitt Romney during Obama’s debate preparation.

Hagel was a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee during his years in the Senate. He and Obama became close while they served in the Senate and traveled overseas together. Hagel has irked some in the GOP with his complaints that the party has moved too far to the right and for his endorsements of Democrats, most recently Bob Kerrey in last month’s Nebraska Senate race.

“He’s a combat vet who was wounded twice and understands that the decisions we make here are carried out by our young men and women” in the military, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Armed Services Committee.

It would be highly unusual for Hagel’s political moves to sink his nomination, even in bitterly divided Washington.