Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published March 12, 2003

His Excellency, Bill Clinton?

 
You loyal readers of these columns will recall that I recently ridiculed the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, for arrogating to himself the title of "His Excellency."

It was great fun. But now it is turning serious!

Paul Harvey, and you know we can all trust Paul Harvey, was the first to mention former President Bill Clinton's ambition to become the next secretary general of the United Nations. And now that story is being picked up by other news sources, as well, and the possibility is more than just a bit frightening.

This fall, the General Assembly of the United Nations may select a new secretary general. The term of the current secretary, His Excellency, Kofi Anan, doesn't expire until 2006, but he is being pressured to resign before then. If he does, then the U.N. Security Council will recommend a replacement. And guess who has been campaigning for the job? None other than William Jefferson Blythe Clinton!

There has never been a representative of the United States chosen to be the U.N. secretary general. But if ever there is to be one, Bill Clinton is probably the only person in the country who would stand a chance of being selected. After all, he was recognized as our first "black" president, wasn't he? And after being president of the United States, where else is there to go to exercise the type political ambition we know the Clintons to have?

Looking back, we wondered at the time why President Clinton was making all those foreign trips more than any other president in history. There didn't appear to be any real foreign policy reason for the trips. No major foreign policies resulted from his trips. But he got his name, and his U.S. taxpayer-funded generosity, known among the lesser developed nations of the world; each having the same vote in the selection of the U.N. secretary general as we do. It is said that he has already lined up the support of Germany, France, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia and China, plus the dozens of African nations, plus India, Egypt and Morocco. (Don't forget that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom long before G.W. arrived on the scene.)

Mr. Clinton is right now very vocal in his support of further U.N. procrastination on Iraq, and in criticizing the foreign policy positions of the Bush Administration. Sounds like a candidate for political office to me.

And if you really want to suffer apoplexy, consider what the team of U.N. Secretary General William Jefferson Clinton, and U.S. President Hillary Rodham Clinton would mean to our nation and to the world community!

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle.