Hillary Clinton's Confirmation Hearings Begin

Secretary of State-desginate Hillary Clinton is sitting in front of the Senate Foreign Committee, chaired by Senator John Kerry, for her confirmation hearings. Below, we have a live video stream, via MSNBC, of the hearings.

Senator Charles Schumer introduced Clinton—saying he knew she will be a "brilliant Secretary of State"—but not before Kerrey acknowledged how Chelsea Clinton was present and that her mother had wished she could see her during hearings. (Kerry invited Chelsea to sit on the dais, as a quasi-intern.)

Side note: There's a lot of congratulating Kerry on his ascension to Foreign Relations Committee chair; Biden vacated the chairmanship. Besides joking about his own presidential (and even Secretary of State) ambitions, Kerry said of Clinton as Secretary of State, "America is back."