Vitter turns up volume in his criticism of U.N.

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Jun 10, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:30 a.m.

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WASHINGTON — Almost everyone has heard the story of David and Goliath, but how about David against the world?

Since his election to the Senate in 2004, U.S. Sen. David Vitter has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the United Nations, the international body created 60 years ago to foster world cooperation. In floor statements and news releases over the last year, the Louisiana Republican has called the agency arrogant and dysfunctional.

He has taken particular exception to the United Nations involving itself in New Orleans affairs ranging from housing to race relations, asserting that the agency is interfering in matters in which it has no jurisdiction.

One of his biggest beefs is that the organization admits nations such as Cuba, Libya and China into its world policy-making panels.

“The United Nations is a regular forum for anti-American actions,” Vitter said. “There are a lot of states that are clearly not democracies.”

Conservative Republicans have traditionally opposed the United Nations. But Vitter has been particularly active in carrying the mantle, even using his opposition to raise campaign funds.

Supporters of the United Nations contend that Vitter’s positions show that he doesn’t want the United States to have to play by the same rules as all other countries.

“Senator Vitter is running around with the ‘America Right or Wrong Crowd’ … who have brought us such great hits as the current quagmire in Iraq, while at the same time, damaging our beloved country’s image around the world,” said Howard Salter, a spokesman for Citizens for Global Solutions, a nonpartisan foreign policy advocacy group.

U.N. officials could not be reached to comment on the Vitter objections. A list of questions sent to the organization two weeks ago went unanswered.

The matter that Vitter has been most vociferous about is the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. The agency’s attempt is to create a body and a court to govern the seas, which make up two-thirds of the globe.

The rules would cover military maneuvers, environmental impacts and the management of natural resources, such as fish. But Vitter said that the pact is harmful to the United States, which would have to cede too much control over those issues.

“It’s sapping U.S. sovereignty and moving it to a forum that is against the United States,” Vitter said.

Vitter has gained some support in his crusade. Voting 81-10, the Senate passed an amendment in September that would have prevented any United States funding from going to organizations, such as the United Nations, that would pursue international gun control policies. Though the provision was later stripped out of the legislation, Vitter said it sent a message to the agency that the United States would not allow the United Nations to infringe on the country’s Second Amendment rights.