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U.N. Ambassador Danforth Resigns (Fox News, December 02, 2004)

U.N. Ambassador John Danforth has handed in his resignation.

Danforth, a former Missouri Republican senator, was confirmed to the post by the Senate at the end of June. An Episcopalian priest, he was thrust into the national spotlight after being chosen to officiate at President Reagan's state funeral. [...]

An administration official told FOX News that Danforth informed Bush immediately after the election that he wanted to leave his post for personal reasons.

Go with Paul Wolfowitz just because it would drive people crazy.

MORE:
Walk Softly and Carry a Rubber Stick: Envoy Learns That Diplomatic Circumlocution Makes Friends at U.N. (Colum Lynch, November 26, 2004, Washington Post)

John C. Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, describes himself as a straight-talking "Midwest guy" who has been thrust into a world of diplomatic doublespeak where nonsensical rules are the norm.

The Republican former Missouri senator experienced his first encounter with the arcane ways of the world body when he led a U.S. effort in September to threaten sanctions against Sudan for failing to crack down on government-backed militia engaging in mass killings in Darfur. The 15-nation Security Council agreed to issue the warning, but only if the word "sanctions" was eliminated. A separate effort to impose a tough resolution demanding that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon was achieved after Danforth agreed not to refer directly to Syria in it.

"Everything has to go through these screens," Danforth said in a recent interview at the U.S. mission to the United Nations. "We can pass a resolution on Syria so long as we don't mention the word 'Syria.' " [...]

Elected in 1976 as a senator from Missouri, Danforth quit elective politics 10 years ago and returned to St. Louis, because "I didn't want government to define me."

But he has remained in the public eye, heading the 1999-2001 inquiry into the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Tex. An Episcopal priest, he officiated at President Ronald Reagan's funeral at the Washington National Cathedral in June. Danforth was briefly mentioned as a possible candidate for secretary of state in President Bush's second term, a job that went to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. [...]

Danforth acknowledges that he is something of a diplomatic novice. His first foray into foreign policy began Sept, 6, 2001, five days before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Bush appointed Danforth his special envoy to Sudan, where he has struggled ever since to end Africa's longest civil war. Danforth said he did not know Bush well before he was chosen.

"I've known his family more than I've known him," Danforth said. "I don't know why I was asked to do Sudan."

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 2, 2004 6:00 PM