Bush Caves on Kofi

President Bush, along with 109 other leaders gave a vote of confidence to the hapless Kofi Annan:

The Bush administration has expressed confidence in United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, despite calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers over a scandal involving the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program for Iraq.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, said Thursday that President Bush has confidence in Mr. Annan, and dismissed speculation the administration was trying to push the Ghanaian diplomat out.
Mr. Danforth also stressed the importance of a U.S. investigation of the oil-for-food program, saying it would be the only way to - in his words - lift the cloud from the United Nations.

A huge mistake in my estimation. Annan has led an organization that has been corrupted beyond repair. The authority on this subject is the always great Claudia Rosett, and she is like an akita with a meaty bone:

The matter is surfacing in new documents coming to light as investigators scramble to find out why the young son of the secretary-general was put on the payroll by a Swiss-based company, Cotecna Inspection Services SA, that ended up doing some of the most sensitive work in the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The documents show that far from being a provincial Peace Corps type working in Africa, as the secretary-general's office has implied, the younger Annan led a highly cosmopolitan life, dividing his time between Lagos, London, Geneva, and New York - where he listed his father's address, one month before Kofi Annan took the post of secretary-general, as one of the places where he could be reached over the winter 1996 holidays.

I've no idea what Bush was thinking backing Annan. The guy is anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian and pro-dictator (read Mugabe). I suspect that Bush will be hearing about this for weeks.