Senate Panel OKs U.N. Post for Holbrooke

After spending more than a year in political limbo, diplomat Richard Holbrooke was endorsed Wednesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to become America’s chief representative at the United Nations.

The committee took less than a minute to approve Holbrooke and 24 other State Department appointments and promotions on a deceptively mundane voice vote, abruptly ending the panel’s scrutiny of allegations that Holbrooke had violated U.S. conflict of interest laws as an investment banker after leaving his previous government job in 1996.

Although Holbrooke apparently commands enough support in the full Senate to be confirmed by a lopsided vote when the nomination reaches the floor, he faces a final impediment under an arcane procedure that allows a single senator to delay an appointment indefinitely for any reason.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has put a “hold” on Holbrooke’s nomination to protest an unrelated matter: the State Department’s punishment of a whistle-blower who was employed at the U.S. mission to the United Nations and gave Congress confidential information alleging waste and mismanagement at the international organization.

On Wednesday, Grassley held firm despite appeals from Republican and Democratic leaders to allow a vote on the nomination before Congress leaves Washington for a weeklong Independence Day recess.

President Clinton selected Holbrooke, the driving force behind the Bosnia-Herzegovina peace agreement, to be U.N. ambassador in June 1998. He would replace Bill Richardson, who was named Energy secretary.

But the nomination was stalled by charges that Holbrooke used contacts he made as a top government official to further his private interests. The Foreign Relations Committee conducted three extensive hearings to consider the allegations.

Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) said that Holbrooke eventually satisfied his critics by apologizing for lapses in judgment. “He did a mea culpa the first day,” Helms told reporters after Wednesday’s committee vote. “I’ve had no senator to indicate to any extent that he had any reservations.”

Holbrooke, 58, began his career as a Foreign Service officer in Saigon in the 1960s. In subsequent years, he rotated between the government and private business, holding senior positions as assistant secretary of State for the Far East, assistant secretary of State for Europe and ambassador to Germany.