WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The White House has named a new spokesman for the National Security Council, one of a series of appointments there announced Thursday.
Gordon Johndroe, a political appointee and long-time White House communications aide, will replace Frederick Jones, a well-liked career Foreign Service official.
Johndroe currently serves as director of strategic communications and planning at the State Department, after having been the first lady's press secretary and worked in public affairs at the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in 2003. He has been with the administration since January 2001, and attended the University of Texas at Austin.
Jones, who was detailed to the White House from the State Department and remains for now on the Foreign Service payroll, was said by colleagues to be "considering his options."
According to a brief biography posted by the Center for Media and Democracy, Jones attended Howard University, and Davis law school at the University of California. He spent a year in Amsterdam, studying European law, and took the Foreign Service exam there. He was deputy press secretary at the Madrid embassy, and also worked in the State Department's press shop before being detailed to the White House as deputy National Security Council spokesman in 2003.
Other new appointments at the NSC Thursday included a permanent replacement for John Bellinger, the council's lead lawyer. Richard Klingler, from the White House counsel's office will take the job, easing John "Brad" Weigmann, -- who had been acting in the post since Bellinger's departure with Condoleezza back in January 2005 -- back into the deputy's chair. Klingler has bachelor's degrees from Stanford and Oxford Universities, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Bobby Pittman was named to the council's top African affairs job, replacing Cindy Courville, who was made U.S. ambassador to the African Union in July.
Pittman was most recently a senior official in the Africa Bureau at the State Department. He has a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a master's from the University of Chicago.
