The Making of a Republican

Sen. Norm Coleman, REPUBLICAN of Minnesota, was of course a Dem just a few years ago. Today, he stands beside Bush and Bolton as the bane of Annan and the bloated, corrupt, innept UN.

There's a very good profile of Coleman in Weekly Standard, including this quick summary of how a conservative Dem was forced out of his party, much to their loss:

Coleman's efforts--combined with his pro-life views and refusal to promote gay rights--made him a pariah among DFL liberals. He was greeted with boos and jeers at various DFL events, including the party's June 1996 state convention. The coup de grace that convinced him to defect, Coleman has said, was Democrats' opposition to welfare reform that same year. Following the '96 election, he left the DFL. Or, as he puts it, "the Democratic party left me."

Coleman on Oil-for-Food:

"I see John Bolton as a tremendous potential ally," Coleman says. "You need a tough advocate if you're going to change the bureaucracy of the U.N." He touts Bolton's multilateral work to secure the repeal of the U.N.'s Zionism-is-racism plank and to cement the 2002 Moscow Treaty on nuclear weapons. The Minnesota senator also regards Bush's tapping of Bolton as a personal vindication of sorts. "The Bolton nomination is a very loud statement," he says. "Clearly, Kofi has not been exonerated."

The UN is very concerned about Coleman's and the Congress' work on Oil-for-Food, particularly the fact that Coleman was unimpressed by teh most recent report from the Volcker committee, and his subsequent subpoenas to a senior U.N. investigator, Robert Parton, who quit the Volcker investigation, saying it had a pro-Annan bias.

The subpoena, Parton and whether or not Parton is violating any UN rules was all the talk at Friday's UN press briefing, and it's evident that Annan and his inner circle are unhappy and frightened.

Question: Steph, I was wondering if you can speak a little bit to the frustrations within the UN and from the Secretary-General on the fact that he’d established this Volcker committee to serve as this very credible arbiter of what went wrong in oil-for-food, and now it’s being dragged into controversy itself, and has sort of been hijacked by what appears to be a very political game between Republican members of Congress, who have their own agenda, and the UN itself. Is there frustration that the Volcker committee may also be losing its authority; especially with such a crucial final report coming up on the Council and that it might not get the cooperation that it needs? What’s the feeling from the Secretary-General?

Associate Spokesman: You know, the Volcker panel was established close to a year ago to go give us in-depth answers to what happened during the oil-for-food programme. Not only the behaviour of UN staff, but looking at the actions of the Security Council and MemberStates as a whole. We feel that the Volcker panel has the tools for an investigation which needs to be deep and wide, and we hope that they are able to conclude their work.

Question: But with all these, you know, subpoenas from the Hyde committee and possibly more subpoenas from Coleman and Shays; and who knows what else? You don’t think that this process is being hijacked by the US Congress?

Associate Spokesman: I can’t speak to the motivations of the US Congress. Mr. Volcker is trying to protect the integrity of the investigation and we are trying to do that as well. And it is of concern to us.