Norm Coleman's Shame
In late October The Daily Outrage detailed the right-wing media's selective and misplaced reporting on the UN's handling of Iraq's oil-for-food (OFF) program. Joy Gordon followed-up recently in a Nation article which countered conservative claims regarding the extent of alleged corruption and showed that, far from giving Saddam a free hand, OFF actually required considerable monitoring. Now the Right's fury has reached a crescendo with a Wall Street Journal Op-ed by Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota.
"It's time for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resign," Coleman begins, before overstating the amount of reported bribes, ignoring the effectiveness of UN sanctions in disarming Saddam Hussein, and accusing the relief plan of funding the Iraqi insurgency.
Coleman was far more charitable toward his own government last April, after Condeeleza Rice revealed that Bush had received a memo titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US," a month before 9/11, Coleman defended Rice by saying: "We've got to get away from finger pointing and the blame game."
A month later, Coleman echoed GOP talking points by blaming the torture at Abu Ghraib on a "small group of soldiers." He called Donald Rumsfeld's Senate testimony "contrite, candid and thorough," and trusted Bush would properly hold high-ranking officers accountable. (Bush hasn't dismissed anyone over the scandal to date.) "This is not a time for critics," Coleman said. His subsequent silence on this issue has been deafening.
Coleman's OFF grandstanding seems part of his transition from moderate Democratic mayor of St. Paul to moderate Republican Senate candidate to reliably conservative lapdog. Now he's using Congressional OFF hearings to audition for the role of the next Jesse Helms, who famously withheld $1 billion in back dues from the UN.
Coleman earlier this year co-sponsored legislation mandating 10 percent US funding cuts for the UN next year and 20 percent for 2006 unless the world body hands over all OFF documents to Congress. Richard Lugar, the pragmatic Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocked a hearing on the proposal. But Republicans plan to reintroduce the legislation in the next session.
Paul Volcker--the respected former chairman of the Federal Reserve--recently asked Coleman to lay low while he conducts his own investigation for Annan. Coleman quickly refused. The newest conservative demagogue apparently can't stay away from the spotlight.
