Lunch at Michael's: The UN Edition



(image via norman.walsh)

Funny how all that haughty Podhoretzian noxious bullshit about how the United-Nations-is-an irrelevant-joke all but evaporates once the General Assembly convenes (We won't even entertain the UN's useful solution to the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict). Jacksonians and Neocons have an almost hilbilly-like superstition about all things
"international (Averted Gaze)." Even Karl Rove has been slipping the word "international law" as a bugaboo in the rhetoric in the rundown to the 2006 Congressional races, re: The McCain Amendment. As you can imagine, New York's power eateries experienced an upswing in the boldface statesmen quotients yesterday. Our favorite social chronicler David Patrick Columbia hips us to the talent in the room at Michael's on NYSocialdiary:

"It was news-broadcasters� day at Michael�s. The place was jammed. At the main round table in the bay was Lou Dobbs, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Christiane Amanpour, Larry King and a couple of others I didn�t recognize because I rarely watch CNN. At the table across from them was Tom Brokaw, and across from him was Deborah Norville and across from her was Paula Zahn, and next to her was a non-broadcaster, the man who saved New York City from bankruptcy 30 years ago: Felix Rohatyn."

And those intrepid Page Sixxies scout other locales:

"When West 55th Street was turned into a 'frozen zone' Sunday night, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived for dinner at Circo, the regular patrons rose and gave him a standing ovation.

"'He's one brave son of a bitch,' said one diner.

Talabani, who might not get to see a lot of American movies in Baghdad, never seemed to notice Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi, at a nearby table.

The proverbial swords also were beaten into forks and spoons at Primavera, where Terje Roed-Larsen, the U.N. special envoy to Beirut, who has been highly critical of Israel's incursion into Lebanon, broke bread with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her predecessor, Silvan Shalom.

"Also at the dinner were Roed-Larsen's wife, Mona Juul, an official in the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry; Qatar Ambassador to the U.N. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser; former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke; Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau; Newsweek heiress Lally Weymouth; plus Charlie Rose, James Tisch and Mike Ovitz.

"'It was insane outside of the restaurant. Israeli Secret Service, American Secret Service, cops with Uzis - you almost had to get a cavity search to get inside,' one witness said."

It's all well and fine to question the effectiveness of a multilateral organization like the United Nations. We do that often, even to the point of This blog's agonizing on whether or not Bolten's brashness might not have its strategic uses. But blasting at the UN's relevance, a la The Sun (who seem blissfully unaware that disgusting Resolution 3379 was revoked), is just plain assy. The United Nations is to the NYSun what Bill Clinton is to the Dick "Clinton stalker" Morris.