SECRETARY RICE: Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm delighted to join this august group to swear in Nancy Brinker as our next chief of protocol. Nancy, you've clearly brought a lot of friends and a lot of admirers to help you celebrate this day. I especially want to recognize our First Lady Laura Bush who is with us. Thank you for honoring us with your presence. (Applause.)

I see many other notables, cabinet secretaries and friends from the Administration, some past, some current. And I also want to really recognize your family who is here. It is so wonderful to have family. And you clearly have a really wonderful family. Your mother -- I would particularly like to say welcome to you, Mrs. Goodman.

I'm often asked when I'm doing swearing-ins: Well, how do you put a job together with a person? And that's really the critical issue. So before I talk about the person, let me talk a little bit about how I see the job as chief of protocol. What do you need? You need an unerring sense of reserve and calm, just in case something goes wrong, which it almost always will. (Laughter.) You need the ability to connect to people, whatever state they may be in. If the Secretary is a little bit late or the President's a little bit late, somehow you have to smooth those waters.

You have to be able to have a connection to people -- whatever culture they come from, whatever circumstances they might find themselves in -- and you have to have to have the will and the desire to do this because you care. Because you care that American diplomacy, America's connection with other countries, is well represented and well-served and because you know that really in this business, it's all about people. You can have the best policies in the world. You can have all the resources in the world, but if you don't have the people, the best people and if you don't have relationships and nurture them and maintain them, and push them forward, you're not going to get very far in changing history. The Chief of Protocol, in many ways, is the first face in that process of making certain that our relationships are solid and sound and that we have a good basis for the next meeting or the next engagement.

And so when I was thinking about who might do this job, my friend, Nancy Brinker, seemed the perfect person to do it. Why? Because obviously, Nancy is someone of grace and elegance and someone who can handle almost any situation when it comes along and that was one reason that I wanted Nancy to do this. Secondly, Nancy is obviously someone who connects with people. We all know that. We've watched her grace as she's been involved in so many nonprofit organizations and efforts.

I also had the opportunity to know her as Ambassador to Hungary and to know how much she was beloved by the Hungarian people, respected by the Hungarian Government, and how much she did to be able to press forward this very important new relationship with a young democracy, a good and dear friend, Hungary. And so I know that she can connect with people and help us to do the diplomacy. She did it as Ambassador to Hungary.

I know too that Nancy cares, because Nancy took one of the great personal tragedies, the death of her sister some 30 years ago, and made it into a triumph for women with breast cancer. And that's especially important to me because my mother died of breast cancer and I know what it was like for my mother when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1970 and it was not like the world of having that terrible diagnosis today. And much of what has happened in between is because of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the efforts at education, the efforts of bringing the terrible disease out of the shadows, the efforts at making it alright to admit that you're scared and that you need help and alright for families too to admit that they're scared and that they need help. And so I know how much this is a person who cares.

Finally, when we talked about what our good friend, Nancy, would do as Chief of Protocol, she focused on a couple of things that I thought very, very important: first of all, that her own interest in medical diplomacy, she would like to continue to pursue, to help us to connect with people across the world who need to have a way to deal with terrible diseases like breast cancer, because in much of the world it is still a disease that is hidden in the shadows. And so with Karen Hughes, she is doing -- we're doing medical diplomacy with the Komen Foundation in the Middle East, a place where women are still embarrassed to have this disease.

Nancy also told me that she wanted to make the State Department a place where we could welcome representatives of countries not just when we want to call them to ask for something, but perhaps when we want to call them to say, "How would you like to come and have a briefing on this or a briefing on that?" And she said that she will make that an important part of her job.

And so you see, she brings together these great personal skills and great personal talents with an innovative and creative mind about how to use this role, with the experience to do it well. And I am certain she is someone that will therefore be very important in helping us to push forward the business of transformational diplomacy, the business of helping other people to live better lives around the world, and having them say the United States of America is a good and caring friend.

Nancy, I am delighted that you are going to join us as Chief of Protocol, and I now have the honor of swearing you in. (Applause.)

(The Oath of Office was administered.)

(Applause.)

MS. BRINKER: Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Madame Secretary, for your beautiful words. I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to serve you and this State Department under your leadership. And I want to thank you as well for your service to our nation. I had an opportunity to observe the Secretary last week at the United Nations General Assembly meeting. When I saw her do over 80 meetings in just a few days, I realized how fortunate we really, really are.

I am honored and humbled by the trust and confidence that President Bush and Secretary Rice have placed in me, and I am deeply touched that we are joined by a diplomat in her own right who has inspired people around the world with her message of hope and empowerment, Mrs. Laura Bush. Thank you, Laura. (Applause.)

It's a great privilege to stand before you today, but if I can paraphrase Desmond Tutu, who always said, "If I stand a little bit taller, it's because of standing on the shoulders of others." And it gives me great pride to acknowledge several people on whose shoulders I stand all of the time. My son, Eric, who has shared all of the ups and downs of my 30-year journey of advocacy and activism, and who grew up with more pink ribbons than any boy should ever have to. (Laughter.)

My mother, Ellie Goodman. When Susan and I were growing up in Peoria, Mom always taught us to be stewards, the importance of charity and repairing the world around us. Thank you, Mom.

Two people to whom Susan G. Komen was not just a name, but their mother: her daughter Stephanie, who could not be here; and her son, Scott Komen, and his family, wife Marnie, Maddie and Abigail.

And so many friends and leaders who have dedicated themselves to building Susan G. Komen for the Cure into a global organization, including our President and CEO, Hala Moddelmog and our Chairman of the Board, the Honorable Ken Bentsen.

And I want to dedicate this occasion to two people who are not here. First of course, my sister, Susan, whose love, courage and strength in life and death has always inspired me. Second, to my father, Marvin Goodman. A descendant of immigrants, he instilled in our family an abiding gratitude to a country that gave us the freedom to realize our dreams. A fierce patriot, he taught us that we had the opportunity and indeed the obligation to serve, to give back to the country that had given so much to us. He was a man of humble origins who became a successful entrepreneur. He always encouraged us by saying, "With enough perseverance and courage, you can overcome anything -- except stupidity." (Laughter.) And Dad was proven right, because no matter how hard I tried, I could never get beyond a C in math. (Laughter.)

A little over four months ago, just short of his 91st birthday, my father passed away. He knew it was among his last days, and none of us wanted to leave his side. But he looked at me and he said, "Nancy, I want you to make a promise to me that you will return to serving our country and this President." So it is with great pride and love that I dedicate my service to my father.

Over the past three decades as an advocate, as an ambassador, a simple truth has been revealed to me: It is possible to connect with other people regardless of faith, religion or culture, if you simply reach out to them with respect and understanding and understand that all of us share so many of the same emotions and feelings every day.

During my tenure in Hungary, we harnessed this spirit to strengthen bilateral relations by connecting with local communities, such as when Mrs. Bush earned the gratitude of so many Hungarians when she visited for a few days and came with me to a local cancer clinic, where she gave so much hope, love and support, the patients, who could never have imagined not only meeting a First Lady but having the comfort of her saying such kind words to them.

And we see this spirit in the President's global democracy agenda, in Secretary Rice's emphasis on transformational diplomacy, both of which are rooted in partnerships between nations and people-to-people relationships.

And we see this spirit, of course, in our Office of Protocol. Because we're not only welcoming dignitaries, coordinating ceremonies and credentialing diplomats. Every time we reach out and connect with a guest to our country, we are building bridges of mutual understanding that are at the very core of the heart of our diplomatic relationships.

And tomorrow, at the National Archives, Deputy Secretary Negroponte and I will meet with many of the 184 foreign ambassadors serving in Washington, where I will highlight one of my top priorities as Chief of Protocol: an outreach program to bring diplomats -- connect them to leaders from across America, from business, education, cultural and medical communities, as well as nongovernmental organizations and government officials. Because by helping our best friends -- those who live here, those who are our guests in America -- truly experience America, the full fabric of our society, beyond traditional diplomatic circles, we will help strengthen these bridges of understanding.

In that spirit, here in this room we recall Benjamin Franklin's famous observation from the Constitutional Convention. Through all of the debates, he had been fascinated by a painting on George Washington's chair, a sun which was low on the horizon. And when the Constitution was finally signed, Franklin said, "Often in the course of this session, through all my hopes and fears, I've often wondered whether that sun was rising or setting. Today, I have the happiness to know it is indeed a rising sun."

My friends, because of the spirit in this room today, because of the mission of our shared institutions, with confidence and happiness and with the direction we are going and the work we are doing, America will always remain a rising sun. And I am humbled and honored and grateful to join in this noble work. Thank you.

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