Look who just crawled out from under a rock!

It's Connecticut's half of the Waitress Sandwich Team, Senator Chris Dodd, only now he has the hots for Kofi Annan's gofer, Mark Malloch Brown. If you don't remember the story from a couple of weeks ago, Markie showed up June 6 at a US conference sponsored by left wing Donks and got all pissy about criticism of the United Nations. Robert Novak:

''He was shamelessly pandering to partisan interests,'' Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who has led congressional pressure for U.N. reform, told me. Malloch Brown's remarkable speech was delivered under the auspices of two left-of-center think tanks, one of them with particularly close ties to the Democratic Party. In Malloch Brown's audience were key officials of the Clinton administration, headed by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called on Secretary General Kofi Annan to ''repudiate'' his deputy and expressed hope privately that this rejection really would take place. Instead, Malloch Brown's boss defended his unprecedented intrusion into American politics, saying he agreed with him and referring to the resulting tumult as only a ''minor storm.'' U.N. sources said it was inconceivable that Annan did not have prior knowledge of Malloch Brown's intentions.

Coleman, who as Senate permanent investigations subcommittee chairman has focused on corruption at the U.N., sees a desperate effort by Annan to seize the initiative before the scheduled reduction of U.S. spending at the end of June.

Lots of luck with that one, Toffee. If you don't clean up the stables, think about going on a diet.

The venue chosen by the British civil servant was extraordinary: a conference held as a joint venture by two think tanks. The Washington-based Center for American Progress is headed by John Podesta, Clinton White House chief of staff and a leading Bush-basher. The New York-based Century Foundation is run by Richard Leone, a longtime Democratic political operative. The conference was loaded with critics of Bush, including Albright, Carol Browner, Theodore Sorensen, Lawrence Korb, Richard Holbrooke, Joschka Fischer and Morton Halperin (with Rep. James Leach of Iowa as a token Republican).

That might seem strange territory for a career international bureaucrat, but Malloch Brown was a man on a mission. He asserted that ''much of the public discourse [about the United Nations] that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.'' He went on to cite ''too much unchecked U.N.-bashing and stereotyping over too many years.'' His overriding message appeared to blame corruption at the United Nations on Americans, especially the Republican Party.

Dang, I guess it's my fault that so many of Kofi's bosom pals were taking bribes from Saddam Hussein! Which reminds me - I wonder if Kofi ever found his fancy car?

His caricature of American public opinion was condemned by Coleman as part of the ''blame America first game'' and appealing to Democrats such as Sen. Christopher Dodd. Indeed, Dodd continued his vendetta against Bolton, which was instrumental in blocking the envoy's confirmation by the Senate.

Dodd, a principal Democratic spokesman on foreign policy, contended that the ambassador must have been reading another speech, because Malloch Brown's remarks ''were constructive'' and ''not an attack on the United States.''

Ooooo! What did his leg feel like, Chris? Ya think Chris is into S&M, too? Of course, Chris feeling all gooey about some tin horn bureaucrat slapping those pesky hicks in the heartland is standard Donk policy these days. If you're a Donk, everybody's better than Americans.

But the New York Times reported on June 7 that the U.N. functionary the previous day ''assailed'' the world organization's largest financial contributor.

I guess they must have been reading a different speech too and they didn't get the memo with the talking points.

The attempt by the U.N. bureaucrats, echoed by Dodd, is to isolate Bolton from his State Department superiors. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Bolton to express her agreement with him. That was confirmed in the State Department briefing June 8 by spokesman Sean McCormack. He said Rice had telephoned Annan June 7 to express her disappointment.

The Bush administration clearly does not regard the U.N. bureaucracy as merely acting in pique against the hard-nosed Bolton. With Annan's term ending in little more than six months, funding is at risk amid complaints on Capitol Hill that the U.N. is still plagued by incompetence and corruption. The secretary general and his deputy are trying to exploit the partisan divide in American politics to discredit Bolton's insistence on reform -- a gamble fraught with peril.

Sheesh, what a combo - bloated UN bureaucrats and arrogant Democrat politicians. Time to keep a close watch on our wallets or it will be business as usual again at the United Nations.