The more his aides aspire to turn Kofi Annan into a Clintonesque figure, the more his leadership’s worst Nixonian tendencies surface to the top.

Like the Watergate-era Nixon, the U.N. secretary-general lashes out at the “relentless” press and, worse, at the Anglo-American alliance, which he blames for fraud in the oil-for-food program. Now one of Mr. Annan’s greatest allies, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, is almost as angry with him as his congressional nemeses such as Senator Coleman.

Rather than backing U.N. reform, China is urging now that the next secretary-general should be Asian. Hinting that the choice is urgent, Beijing joins the rest of the continent, backing Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai’s candidacy for the job.

To Mr. Annan’s rescue rushes Bill Clinton. Relaxed and smiling, the former president answered questions last week with his famous seductive flair, as Mr. Annan’s eyes darted across the press room, his fingers nervously fidgeting with a pencil.

The Clinton show marked the closing of the circle that began late last year as Mr. Annan’s closest ally and chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, was let go. Mr. Riza was the ultimate backroom Nixonian wheeler-dealer, always ready to send proverbial plumbers to work. After a well-publicized secret meeting hosted by Clinton-era U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the sleek and press-savvy Mark Malloch Brown was named chief of staff.

The Briton joined another old Clinton hand, Robert Orr, who last summer became one of Mr. Annan’s closest advisers. Later, Mr. Clinton’s former legal troubleshooter, Greg Craig, offered his services, running rings around the oil-for-food investigators. Finally, Mr. Clinton himself joined in, along with his former chief of staff, Erskine Bowles.

This transformation, however, is no guarantee Mr. Annan will end up like Mr. Clinton – who finished his term despite impeachment and scandal – and not like Nixon, who was forced to resign.

The spin of the Clintonistas around Mr. Annan is that his involvement in the oil-for-food scandal is minor and has to do with such private matters as relations with his son, Kojo. The U.N. scandals are not quite “all about sex,” but their arguments are similar: Rather than addressing his critics, Mr. Annan should devote his time to hard work on behalf of the world, reforming the organization.

But Mr. Annan’s reform plans, some of which are sensible and necessary, looked quite bad last week.

The Chinese government sent millions to the streets for “spontaneous” demonstrations against Japan’s proposed permanent Security Council seat. Without Japan, a top contributor to the U.N.’s budget, no council reform is possible. And last week, the United Nations passed a convention curbing the acquisition of nuclear weapons by terrorists, but the Arab bloc will not accept Mr. Annan’s call to define terrorism, making that convention all but meaningless.

Then, there is the Human Rights Commission. Last week, it failed to coalesce around a resolution on Darfur, with the African bloc refusing any condemnation of the government of Sudan. Crises in Zimbabwe and Cuba were also pushed aside. The only tough worded resolutions – three of them – were directed, as always, at Israel. Among the 53 members of the commission, only America and Australia voted against these skewered priorities.

But this is precisely why Mr. Annan is needed, his defenders argue, pointing to his plan to reform the Human Rights Commission. Last week, he visited Geneva, urging the commission to address the Darfur crisis. He also published his thoughts in a New York Times opinion piece. But, as the results of his efforts show, reform requires more than publishing op-eds and releasing long, unreadable reports, which his minions continue to produce with maddening regularity.

Most of all, it requires the kind of international clout Mr. Annan no longer possesses.

Over the weekend, a man who used to call Mr. Annan “uncle,” his son’s childhood friend Michael Wilson, was implicated in yet another bribery scandal in yet another Geneva-based U.N. agency.

And the Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park is now reportedly looking to cut a deal with U.S. Attorney David Kelley. As last week’s complaint shows, this veteran of Washington scandals can point to many closets where top U.N. skeletons are buried. Unlike the friendly investigation under Paul Volcker, Mr. Kelley’s promises “wringing the towel dry.”

Mr. Annan, who has spent his entire adult life in an institution that has a lot of dirty laundry that only recently began to be washed in public, is unused to all of this. It is no wonder he goes on a Nixonian tirade every now and then.