2. Clinton — like the GOP — reportedly prefers another candidate

There’s another reason Senate Republicans want to block Rice — they want Obama to tap his second choice, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), says Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. Why? Defeated Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) could probably win Kerry’s seat, and “one less Democrat in the Senate would make for a nice little cherry on their sundae.” But it’s not just Republicans who want Kerry, says Michael Sneed at the Chicago Sun-Times. Clinton prefers to be replaced by her former Senate colleague, too, according to a White House source. “Hillary is not close to Rice, who is tough — but is not the friendliest person,” the source says.

3. Rice is a big investor in the Keystone XL pipeline

Environmentalists are pretty unhappy about the idea of Rice taking the top job at State, too, say Joshua Hersch and Sam Stein at The Huffington Post. On Wednesday, OnEarth, a publication affiliated with the Natural Resources Defense Council, dug through Rice’s financial disclosure filings and found that she and her husband own large stakes in several Canadian oil companies, including Transcanada, the firm lobbying for approval for its controversial Keystone XL pipeline. So what? “As secretary of state, Rice would have to oversee the review of that project,” making those investments an obvious conflict of interest. Another oil company that the wealthy Rices have a stake in did business with Iran until recently — “but Rice is not alone.” One of her co-investors is none other than John McCain.