Reply #3: It won't work

[kskiska]

(snip)

Life for those few Republicans at the United Nations has been, at times, awkward. Catherine Bertini, who preceded Burnham as the United Nations' top management official, said colleagues were appalled by her backing of Bush after his decision to invade Iraq. Bertini, who resigned in April, recalled being confronted by a senior U.N. colleague who asked, "How can you possibly support that man?"

(snip)

Luck said the fault also lies with the Republican Party, which has a shortage of internationalists who care about U.N. affairs and want to work here. Those few Republicans who have been sent to New York to "shake up the system" may find it hard to leaving a lasting mark. "I think the system is very hard to move," Luck said. "You send someone to New York, and in a couple of years they begin to sound a lot more like a U.N. person than a Bush administration appointee."

In Burnham's case, at least, there have been no signs of a political conversion. Said one senior U.N. official: "The Kool-Aid hasn't made its way through his bloodstream yet."