This explains Bill Clinton's new persona as a conciliatory.....

[whistle]

...politician:

<snip>
Bill Clinton Takes Spot On Global Stage

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 1, 2005; Page A01

In 2001, in the opening months of his ex-presidency, Bill Clinton confided to an aide that he had decided on his dream job for the next chapter of his life: secretary general of the United Nations.

The goal may not be realistic, he acknowledged, but he then went on to analyze all the factors in minute detail, as though he were preparing for a political campaign: whether a U.S. president would ever see fit to back him, for one, and what it would take to persuade other nations to bend the long-standing tradition that the top job does not go to someone from a country with permanent status on the U.N. Security Council.

His ambition, as the aide described it, was both breathtaking and entirely logical for a natural-born politician who had reached the top of the American political ladder: "president of the world."

Four years later, say several associates who have spoken with him in recent months, Clinton regards his dream of leading the United Nations as something more than a flight of fancy and something less than a serious prospect. Already, however, he has succeeded to a surprising degree in fashioning his ex-presidency to make himself a dominant player on the world stage.

<more>
<link> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053101825.html?referrer=emailarticle

[gmoney]

1. I thought he was ineligible...

something about no heads of state or former heads of state in that post, or as ambassadors.

Makes sense to me, otherwise, Bush would have appointed Poppy instead of Bolton.

[Divernan]

2. US Pres. (Bush) can appoint Ambassador to UN, NOT Secretary General of UN

Also, as to international law, there is no binding precedent, and the UN could always amend it's Articles re eligibility.
ON EDIT: I haven't plowed through the UN Articles since law school (20 years ago), but I think what Pres. Clinton wants is to be Secretary General, and that office is filled by vote of 9 of the 15 members of the Security Council, 5 of which must be all the votes of the permanent members of the Sec. Council. I don't recall anything regarding limitations on that position re having been a head of state. Such a limitation would have to be in the UN Articles, and I don't think it is. If it WERE, those articles can be amended by a 2/3 vote of all UN member nations, including the five permanent members, and those votes would have to be ratified "back home" according to the governmental policies of each member state.

All that said, he would be a FANTASTIC Secretary General.

[gmoney]

3. Isn't this the right-wingers' big paranoia?

That President Hillary would install the Big Dog as head of the UN, and they would RULE THE WORLD and mandate the eating of babies and eliminate private property and enslave US citizens to the French or some such paranoid BS?

If this happened, guys like Limbaugh and his ilk, their heads would literally explode from rage.