WP: At the U.N., a Growing Republican Presence

[Pirate Smile]

At the U.N., a Growing Republican Presence

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Page A21

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 -- Christopher B. Burnham, the highest-ranking U.S. citizen working in the U.N. Secretariat, is a rare breed here: a Republican Party loyalist and an enthusiastic supporter of President Bush.

Burnham, the United Nations' undersecretary for the department of management, is one of a handful of Bush administration supporters hired by the United Nations in recent months. They have been promoting Bush's political agenda in an organization that has clashed bitterly with Republican policymakers over such issues as the impact of global warming and the justification for the war in Iraq.

Burnham says he sees his purpose as furthering the mission he began as the chief financial officer in the Bush State Department: making the bureaucracy he oversees more accountable. Burnham suggested that his ultimate loyalty may lie with the president, not his new boss, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. He says he also relishes the thought of working with John R. Bolton, a close friend and Bush's choice as U.N. ambassador, to force change.

"I'm not here to be a careerist," said Burnham, a former GOP fundraiser and investment banker who keeps photographs of Bush, Laura Bush and George H.W. Bush in his U.N. office. "I came here at the request of the White House. It's my duty to make the U.N. more effective. My primary loyalty is to the United States of America."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002000.html

[Cha]

1. Doesn't sound like a very pleasant

place to be with that kind of oppressive atmosphere.

burnham lost me at bush and bolton.

his "prime loyalty" is to Screw the United States Of America.

[leesa]

2. Your ONLY loyalty is to The Party. You are un-American

[kskiska]

3. It won't work

(snip)

Life for those few Republicans at the United Nations has been, at times, awkward. Catherine Bertini, who preceded Burnham as the United Nations' top management official, said colleagues were appalled by her backing of Bush after his decision to invade Iraq. Bertini, who resigned in April, recalled being confronted by a senior U.N. colleague who asked, "How can you possibly support that man?"

(snip)

Luck said the fault also lies with the Republican Party, which has a shortage of internationalists who care about U.N. affairs and want to work here. Those few Republicans who have been sent to New York to "shake up the system" may find it hard to leaving a lasting mark. "I think the system is very hard to move," Luck said. "You send someone to New York, and in a couple of years they begin to sound a lot more like a U.N. person than a Bush administration appointee."

In Burnham's case, at least, there have been no signs of a political conversion. Said one senior U.N. official: "The Kool-Aid hasn't made its way through his bloodstream yet."

[DeepModem Mom]

4. kick