Ban Ki-moon's Big Job...

… as I’ve summed up for today’s New York Daily News, is cleaning up Kofi’s mess.

The good news is that when Ban arrived at the UN this morning, he had the audacity to give a sane response to a press question about whether Saddam Hussein should have been executed. Instead of answering with a Kofi-like jab at the U.S., Ban began — and right he was — by reminding his audience that “Saddam Hussein was responsible for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against the Iraqi people.” Ban went on to say that “The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide.” Only then did he slide into the moral goo of UN platitudes about the international community and its law of rule, or rule of law, or whatever it is the UN has been upholding in the Middle East all these years.

The bad news is that Ban has already begun handing out new berths to some of Kofi’s old crew, and more of the same is expected. With Ambassador Bolton gone, and the changeover in Congress, there is effectively no more oversight of the UN. With a set-up like that, unless Ban turns out to be Rudy Giuliani in disguise, expect years of sustainable UN sleaze.