How will Condi Rice Handle U.N. Problem?

As anyone who follows the ins and outs of official Washington knows, Condoleezza Rice, as incoming Secretary of State will have her hands full. Aside from all the life and death issues of the day, one of her biggest challenges will be how she manages the very independent (and decidely leftist) State Department officials who make up the foreign service, the nation's diplomatic civil service.

One hot button issue where friction with these civil servants is certain to boil over is how we deal with the United Nations. You might recall failed Presidential candidate John Kerry's "global test" and his insistence that we work with the U.N. to address problems around the world. Yet, the ever growing scandal of Saddam Hussein's Oil for Bribes should make it evident to even the "global test" crowd that if U.N. looks the other way when food and medicine destined to help people turns into bribes to keep a butcher in power, the U.N. will not live up to it's creed.

And how amazing that our lefty friends who screeched "Halliburton" and "Enron" like a flock of demented parrots are silent on this outrage. Hmmm... can you say HYPOCRISY?

Shake-up at the U.N.? - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - December 03, 2004: "Although the Iraqi elections on Jan. 30 will top her incoming agenda, the first real indicator of Condoleezza Rice's tenure as secretary of state will be how she handles something most in her new department would rather ignore: the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal.

On one side in Washington are those appalled by the ever-increasing evidence that Saddam Hussein bilked billions out of a program designed to help ordinary Iraqis, and they want accountability regardless of the impact on the United Nations' credibility or long-term health.

On the other side, however, are thousands in the Foreign Service who have assiduously avoided obvious malfeasance at the international body in the hopes that the $21 billion boondoggle would somehow disappear. Notes one State Department veteran, 'People here want this to go away, because they believe we need to protect the United Nations in order to preserve its legitimacy.' "