Demagogue

Fresh of my bashing of the UN Security Council, I came across an op-ed in the Washington Times on a new congressionally mandated task force created to "find ways to help the United Nations to realize more fully the purposes of its charter."

The op-ed was penned by the task force's co-chairs: Newt Gingrich and George Mitchell.

Oh boy, with Gingrich on board, you know things aren't going to turn out very well for the UN. And judging by their own words, Gingrich and Mitchell don't seem particularly concerned about the UN anyway

How will our task force differ from the many other past and current studies and proposals for U.N. reform? We believe that our efforts will be distinctive in at least six respects. First, we will focus on the United Nations from the perspective of American interests and American responsibilities, not on the basis of an abstract notion of international community or of the concerns of other countries.

But there is a little bit of hope

Fourth, our task force is composed of a bipartisan group of leading Americans who will bring expertise not only from politics and government, but also from the military, business and academia.

Maybe some of these groups will be able to control Gingrich's innate desires to utterly destroy the UN. Who are they?

Fifth, as directed by the legislative report language, the task force is to be supported by experts drawn from six of the nation's leading public policy organizations: the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution.

Hmmm .. "bipartisan" must mean "center-right" because by my count that is 4 conservative think tanks and 2 centrist ones.

Maybe Mitchell will be able to wield some moderating influence here, but considering the task force's focus and supporting cast, I suspect that he is about to get steamrolled into advocating the complete capitulation of the United Nations to the Republican agenda.