Rockefeller 'Troubled' by Negroponte's Switch to State Department

(CNSNews.com) - A top Democrat said Thursday he was "troubled" by the timing of the news that National Intelligence Director John Negroponte will assume the number two post at the State Department.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it was unacceptable for top two posts in the intelligence community to be vacant at the same time. He cited the departure last May of Gen. Michael Hayden, Negroponte's then deputy, who left to head up the CIA.

Rockefeller said the leadership of the intelligence community was "too important."

He would work with Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), incoming head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to plan confirmation hearings for Negroponte and Hayden's replacements, while making sure Negroponte does not leave his post prior to his successor's confirmation, Rockefeller said in a statement.

"Director Negroponte deserves credit for building the office from scratch and starting the process of creating a true intelligence community. His successor will need to accelerate that process in order to realize the vision of the intelligence reform legislation passed two years ago," he said.

Retired Adm. Mike McConnell - senior vice president at strategy consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996 - is reportedly being considered as Negroponte's replacement.

Rockefeller called McConnell "a career intelligence professional" and said he looked forward to meeting with him soon.

Negroponte is considered "a disaster" by people in the intelligence community, an unnamed government official told Fox News.

"He's a foreign service officer to the bone," the official said, saying Negroponte feels more at home in a State Department setting.

"Everyone knows he's not doing well," the official was quoted as saying. "Nothing's gone on since he got there but another layer of bureaucracy. He did nothing to revive the intelligence agencies."

But another official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, painted a different picture.

"John Negroponte's done a great job. He is also somebody who is a career diplomat who is going to be able to continue to use those skills in the No. 2 position at State," the official said.

"This is something where the president went to John and asked him to take the job because it was that important," the official added.

President Bush is expected to nominate Negroponte on Friday to deputy secretary of state, serving under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and will likely nominate McConnell as his replacement.