When Congressional Republicans resisted approving Elizabeth Warren to the top post on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau in July 2011, she withdrew her name from consideration and instead announced she would run for Scott Brown's Massachusetts Senate seat. Sixteen months later she was elected and shortly after that she was assigned to the prestigious and influential Senate Banking Committee.
Over the past month Congressional Republicans led by two infamously Grumpy Old Men, Sen John McCain and Sen Lindsay Graham, made it clear that the potential nomination of Susan Rice to Secy of State would be fiercely opposed. About two weeks ago Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration, so instead Pres Obama named Sen John Kerry to the position which will open up his Senate seat in Massachusetts.
See where I'm going with this?
Susan Rice officially resides in Washington DC but she works in New York City where she's US Ambassador to the UN, a position she's held every day of Obama's first term. The last Ambassador to the UN who served four years was Madeleine Albright who served during Clinton's entire first term from 1993 to 1997. (There were three UN Ambassadors in Clinton's second term.)
Only one UN Ambassador served longer than four years: Warren Austin during the Truman Administration served in the position for about 6-1/2 years. So it's pretty clear that Ambassador Rice will likely be looking for a new job in January, and possibly even a new place to live, maybe even the beautiful Bay State where any number of universities might be interested in having her on staff.
Massachusetts Gov Deval Patrick will name an acting senator in January who will serve until a Special Election is held sometime in the summer of 2013. The winner of that election will serve about one year then will have to run for re-election.
In case you were curious, here are the Massachusetts state requirements to run for US Senate:
United States Senator
* Must be at least 30 years of age.
* Must be a registered voter.
* Must be a U.S. citizen for at least 9 years prior to the date of the election.
* Must be an inhabitant of Massachusetts when elected.
* Requires certified signatures of at least 10,000 voters registered in Massachusetts.
Would Susan Rice be interested in serving in the Senate? Well, according to her Wikipedia page:
Rice said that her parents taught her to "never use race as an excuse or advantage," and as a young girl she "dreamed of becoming the first U.S. senator from the District of Columbia."
I think it would be fittingly ironic that Rice would run for and win Sen Kerry's seat where together she would serve with Sen Warren, another woman who was once brutally and unfairly scorned by Senate Republicans.