Veneman Is An Anomaly
Turtle Bay 
BY BENNY AVNI
March 21, 2005

As Republicans mobilize to promote democracy around the world, Democrats are influencing the world body at Turtle Bay.
Last week, Kofi Annan nominated Erskine Bowles as deputy special envoy for tsunami recovery. In that position, Mr. Bowles will serve under President Clinton, who was named a United Nations special envoy for tsunami recovery in February. The two will work out of an office on a high floor at the headquarters of the United Nations Development Program building. Mr. Clinton has already moved in - now his former chief of staff and two-time North Carolina Democratic gubernatorial hopeful will join him.
The UNDP is run by Mark Malloch Brown, who is also Kofi Annan's chief of staff. Though a British national, Mr. Malloch Brown's sensibilities represent those most similar to America's at the U.N. His politics resemble those of the centrist Democrats around President Clinton. I resent [the notion that] democracy is a Bush invention, he said about recent signs of transformation in the Middle East, echoing smart Democratic partisans.
Mr. Malloch Brown's UNDP chief of communications, Justin Leites, took a leave of absence last year to work for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign in his home state of Maine. (No staff regulations were broken, a UNDP spokesman, William Orme, swore to me.)
A former agriculture secretary under President Bush, Ann Veneman, was recently named head of Unicef, replacing Democrat Carol Bellamy, who constantly angered the Bush administration with her emphasis on sex education over abstinence. Obviously, relationships and contacts in Washington will be helpful, Mr. Annan said regarding the token Republican appointment.
Most of Mr. Annan's American advisers, however, are like Jeffrey Sachs, who wrote much of the chapter on world development in a voluminous report on U.N. reforms Mr. Annan will present with much fanfare to the General Assembly today. Last week Mr. Sachs, known for his prolific and lengthy writings, used harsh words to denounce President Bush's nomination of the action-oriented Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank. (U.N. spokesmen insisted Mr. Sachs spoke only in his capacity as Columbia University professor.)
The secretary-general conducts annual formal meetings with the head of the World Bank, and perhaps Mr. Annan will develop cordial relations with Mr. Wolfowitz. But it is hard to imagine that the two could share friendship like the one that Mr. Annan had with the outgoing Clinton-appointed chief, James Wolfensohn. Mr. Annan was a holiday houseguest at Mr. Wolfensohn's Colorado estate when the tsunami hit southern Asia.
In last year's best-publicized secret meeting, friends of Kofi Annan carried a private intervention to save the secretary-general, as described by participants in almost conspiratorial tones. The high-powered powwow took place in the Manhattan apartment of Richard Holbrooke, who had just emerged from a bruising partisan stint as top foreign policy adviser (and would-have-been secretary of state) for the Kerry campaign. The participants all leaned Democratic on the foreign-policy equation.
Last week Mr. Holbrooke was one of four former American envoys to the U.N. who testified before the House committee on international relations on U.N. reforms, along with Ambassadors Albright, Kirkpatrick, and Williamson. The two Democrats on the panel urged U.N. reforms, but dared not raise the funds-cutting nuclear option.
Without us, the U.N. will fail, Mr. Holbrooke said. If it fails we will be among the many losers. His most pointed criticism was reserved for the U.N.'s public-relations machine: The Turtle Bay press operation belongs in the pony-express era, he said.
Ms. Kirkpatrick, on the other hand, reminisced about the time she had attempted to reshape Unesco. Then, when confronted with the corrupt Paris lifestyle led by the agency's director, she convinced President Reagan to withdraw American funds, leaving Unesco high and dry until it was finally overhauled years later.
Faced with two options - Mr. Holbrooke's just-tweak-the-message approach versus Ms. Kirkpatrick's reform it or destroy it threat - it is no wonder U.N. bigwigs turn to Democrats for reform advice. Washington's current power brokers, however, are unlikely to see Mr. Annan's new reform plan as sufficient.
The U.N. Charter seeks to assure that secretaries-general and their staff remain loyal only to the organization, carrying water for no government or national political party. But as lone superpower and main benefactor, America and its politics are increasingly important to Turtle Bay insiders. They placed all their bets on one side in the last presidential election, and lost. It is time they at least listen to the other side as well.
Mr. Avni covers the United Nations for The New York Sun.