January 3, 2005
WE WANT BILL:
Frank words for Annan in effort to revitalize UN (Warren Hoge, January 3, 2005, The New York Times)
The crisis meeting of veteran foreign policy experts in a Manhattan apartment one recent Sunday was held in agreed-upon secrecy.The high profile guest of honor came unaccompanied by his usual retinue of aides and without the knowledge of most of his closest advisers. The mission, in the words of one participant, was clear - "to save Kofi and rescue the UN."
At the gathering, Secretary General Kofi Annan listened quietly to three and a half hours of bluntly worded counsel from a group united in their personal regard for him and support for the United Nations, but deeply concerned that lapses in his leadership over the past two years had eclipsed the accomplishments of his first term and were jeopardizing chances of making the remaining two years of his term meaningful.
They began by arguing that Annan had to refresh his top management team. The first move will occur this week with an announcement that Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton who heads the United Nations Development Program and is one of the organization's most dynamic figures, is to replace Annan's longtime chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, who announced his resignation on Dec. 22.
The larger argument, according to participants, addressed two broad needs. First, Annan had to move aggressively to repair relations with Washington where, they said, the administration and many in Congress thought he and the United Nations had worked actively against President George W. Bush's reelection. And second, he had to restore his relationship with his own bureaucracy, where workers felt his office protected high-level officials accused of misconduct.
These folks, who hold him in high regard, told him his leadership had been dubious, he'd blown relations with the world's only superpower, and his staff distrusts him? Wait'll he hear's from the folk who hold him in low regard... Posted by Orrin Judd at January 3, 2005 12:01 AM
I don't hold Annan in any lower regard than I do that canker sore on the East River, which would be better utilized as a ballpark for the Mets and Jets. The UN is a waste of time and money, a place that makes no sense whatsoever, where 3d World crooks like Mugabe are treated better than American Presidents and where the Maldives and the US have the same power in the General Assembly and France and the US have the same power on the Security Council.
If the President of the US needs to talk to another world leader, who is going to refuse to take the call?
Posted by: Bart at January 3, 2005 6:31 AMHa. The named attendees were Clinton's top foreign policy people (sans Albright), and the unnamed "high profile guest of honor ... unaccompanied by his usual retinue of aides" was surely Clinton himself. Annan surely thought the advice was designed to make Clinton look good when it got out ... as they knew it would!
Posted by: pj at January 3, 2005 8:51 AMAlso, note that before leaking this to the NY Times, they wanted a month to see how the Bush administration would deal with Kofi, enabling them to claim to have determined prior to the meeting how the Bush administration would deal with the UN.
Posted by: pj at January 3, 2005 8:57 AMClinton's hand in this meeting (and possible participation) reinforces my belief that Clinton wants to be the next Sec. Gen. of the UN.
Posted by: Dave W. at January 3, 2005 11:08 AMDave - if Bill wanted the UN job wouldn't he be trying to get Kofi voted out? And I would think if Bill gets the UN gig people aren't going to be too keen to give Hillary the presidency in '08.
Posted by: AWW at January 3, 2005 11:40 AMAWW, perhaps, but public opinion is fluid and can be easily manipulated. I can't see Bill being content with being "First Gentleman" while his wife (God forbid) rules as President of the US. Ex-president Clinton needs a kingdom of his won to run, and Hillary needs him to have his own kingdom so he'll stay out of her hair. It's a marketable/plausable scenario.
Posted by: Dave W. at January 3, 2005 12:06 PMI don't think Bubba can run - he's not qualified. He's not Asian. They're next up to head it, Iran was going to put Khatami's name in the hat.
Am I missing something?
Posted by: Sandy P at January 3, 2005 12:34 PMEminent Domain, seize Turtle Bay, turn over development right to a group headed by Sam Zell, The Donald, Don King, and George Foreman.
Posted by: Al from Chgo at January 3, 2005 12:44 PMI think Sandy's right - the US isn't in line to get it.
That said, I think the UN's approval rate in the US is below 50%. If Bill gets the UN Secretary job it will enable the GOP to tie Hillary to the "UN will control the US" theme and hurt her in the election.
Posted by: AWW at January 3, 2005 12:54 PMAWW - Kofi won't get voted out, his term expires in 2006 and no one will alienate him and his supporters unnecessarily during the jockeying over (a) his successor and (b) the UN's future.
Sandy/AWW
http://www.brothersjudd.com/blog/archives/016995.html
Posted by: oj at January 3, 2005 1:44 PMBill only became interested in the job when he found out how much Annan was stealing. Besides, he is a pumphead now.
More to the point, we need to tear the building down and denounce the charter.
Condos, Think about luxury condos. Lots of them on the UN site.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 3, 2005 7:51 PM