Negroponte takes new job

02/27/2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- John D. Negroponte was sworn in Tuesday as deputy secretary of state, after leaving his Cabinet-level job as the nation's first director of national intelligence, a post he held for less than two years.

"One of my regrets is he won't be in the Oval Office every morning to share his wisdom with me, and he has plenty of wisdom to share," President Bush told reporters prior to the ceremony at the State Department.

"He understands the importance of fighting the extremists with all elements of national power," the president said. "He's a good negotiator; it doesn't hurt that he can play a mean game of poker."

Bush noted that Negroponte joined the foreign service in 1960, during the last days of the Eisenhower administration. "Some of you weren't even born then," the president said.

Since then, Negroponte has held eight foreign service posts on three continents. The career diplomat served as deputy national security adviser to President Reagan, represented the United States at the United Nations under the current President Bush and served as the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq after Saddam Hussein, a job he held for less than a year.

Negroponte's new boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called her new hire "a legend of American diplomacy."

"He will be a great leader to the men and women of American diplomacy," she said.

Negroponte retired from the foreign service in 1997 to enter the publishing business.

"All in all, I thought I had a pretty good run," he said. "Little did I know, Mr. President, that you would call me back to public life."