All I know about the Admiral is that he actually quite respected as a diplomat, believe it or not. He's apparantly been instrumental in lots of the engagement with host nations in the pacific rim in the wake of OEF (OEF-Phillipines being the biggest operation, I'd imagine.)

In the wake of the ISG report, which calls for greater engagement/appeasement with Syria and Iran, I'd say his presence in CentCom is quite logical. Remember, the post of Combatant Commander is probably more diplomatic than military, being responsible for military-to-military relations with scores of countries and all. It seems that the warfighting functions of those CinCdoms have been devolved to task forces and such.

Just idle speculation though.