Kerry's comments on David Wade leaving - from State.gov

[karynnj]

The first day I walked into the State Department as Secretary, David Wade had already been quietly sworn in the day before to start work on Mahogany Row as my Chief of Staff. He promised to stay a year in his job, but true to form, he went above and beyond, giving me and the Department more than two years of the kind of remarkable service he's given me for close to two decades.

I'm grateful for David's skill and his leadership. He first came to work for me in the Senate as my 22-year-old speechwriter. First known as one of the youngest, he quickly became known as one of the very best. That's been true for many of the jobs David has performed, from the Senate, to the campaign trail for two presidential campaigns, to my years as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and senior Senator from Massachusetts, right here to Foggy Bottom. It's no secret that over the years he passed up many opportunities to go elsewhere and do other things, because loyalty matters to him and I value that special kind of loyalty.

David has been an integral partner and advisor to me on every single issue, a "five-tool player" in the baseball vocabulary with which he's so familiar: critical strategic depth, policy and political judgment, rare communications expertise, and innate leadership skill. David has always had the unique ability to anticipate issues before they arise and solve problems before they hit a fever pitch, and he's done it all with great calm, and with an instinct to give others credit and avoid the puffery of Washington. I still remember when President Obama announced my nomination, David politely told me he should watch the announcement on television with the rest of the Senate staff instead of joining me in the East Room of the White House. That was the kind of quiet, unheralded leadership that marked his tenure in so many positions for me. David never let anything distract from doing his job, and he did it with excellence and grace, grit and fearlessness.

David's experience and expertise working as my Chief of Staff in the Senate, as well as his deep relationships on Capitol Hill, have been vital to our work here at the State Department. He excelled under the pressure and intellectual ferment of two years of unbelievably complicated foreign policy challenges. He was also my right arm, recruiting and building a team of great talent at a time of wholesale turnover at the Department. As a result, he leaves the Department now in great hands.

I will miss David, but I'm thrilled for him and his wife Elizabeth as they begin a new chapter of their lives together as parents, and I know he will remain my friend, and he will continue to contribute in whatever he chooses to do next.

[hedda_foil]

1. Mahogany Row? Is that a neighborhood in Foggy Bottom?nt.

[2naSalit]

5. Here's a reference

that describes it:

Expensive law offices and offices of top US government officials, where the offices have lots of mahogany paneling and built-in mahogany bookcases. Usage dates back in the US Department of State at least to the mid-1970s.

http://www.quora.com/Where-did-the-phrase-Mahogany-Row-originate

[YvonneCa]

2. It's a great statement. He has been...

...working with JK for a long time. Thanks, karynnj.

[MBS]

3. Beautiful.

A deserved tribute, made with grace and class.
I teared up a little!
David Wade is such a good guy-- I wish him the very best in his next step.

[karynnj]

4. So true

I remember that when he left to be the spokesperson for the VP (to be named) nominee, he spoke of JK having been like a father to him and that he had departed with his blessings.

From the comments, it was clearly a very close mutual relationship. It has to be hard for both of them - in different ways - that Wade is leaving. I wonder who will become Kerry's chief of staff. The people he could trust as much as Wade are likely a select few.

[mylye2222]

6. Well. Kerry has promoted Jonatan Finer to serve as Chief of Staff

Till now Finer was serving as Deputy Chief of Staff.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0M21I220150306?irpc=932

[karynnj]

7. Interesting - Finer was the man on the other end of the open mic thing on Gaza

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/20/politics/mideast-kerry-hot-mic/

I am glad I found this because it is hard to get much from his bio other than his being brilliant and young. He did report for the Washington Post in 2003 from Iraq - and they were very hawkish. However, doing the math - he had to be pretty junior. It does mean that he did see what the war did.

From his name he is Jewish, but from his bio he grew up in Norwich, VT. Listening to the conversation, he was clearly on the same page as Kerry -- very upset by the violence.

It is interesting to read in your link that Wade may still accompany Kerry. That is interesting - as it might give him the ability to help Kerry, but spend more time with his family, while avoiding the burnout load of being the Chief of Staff. (Not to mention, I would bet the CoS will have to deal with the Clinton mess.) It might also explain why what he will do now is not spelled out.

[mylye2222]

8. Oh yep I remeber well this so called gaffe" ...

They were both, as you stated, appalled by the Gaza civiloan death toll. And this is reinfirced by the fact that also Finer, witnessed the horror of war, even if he saw it not as a soldier, unlike JK, but as a reporter.