WASHINGTON – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich received bipartisan support – and one unofficial nomination to the U.N. ambassadorship – for a report he delivered Thursday on what America should do to reform the scandal-mired United Nations.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., praised the well-known Republican at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for delivering a comprehensive and insightful report on what the United States should do to encourage and quickly implement changes to U.N. procedure.

Biden also added that if John Bolton – nominated by President Bush to the U.N. ambassadorship – is not confirmed, then the president has an obvious choice with Gingrich. Gingrich said afterward he thought Bolton should be confirmed quickly, as he laughed and avoided the question on whether he would make a better choice.

Gingrich, along with former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, described a litany of abuse, inefficiency and scandal at the United Nations, typified by the Oil-for-Food program that led to an investigation and allegations of embezzlement and fraud involving many of the program’s overseers. Charges of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeepers also have surfaced, and Gingrich said U.N. personnel policies are irresponsible, specifically saying that the U.N. Human Rights Commission should be replaced.

“[The commission] has been an embarrassment,” Gingrich said. The African country of Sudan, he said, sits on the commission while at the same time it is being investigated for engaging in genocide. Those kinds of discretions need to be fixed quickly, he said, especially on issues concerning genocide as people in countries like Sudan struggle with a civil war.

The United Nations should have a larger and more effective peacekeeping role to play in that conflict, Gingrich said, and the United States has a vested interest in helping change to take place.

Members of the committee agreed.

“We need reform to take place,” said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. “It is helpful for America to have a reliable, credible, transparent United Nations.”

Coleman and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., have introduced what they call “meaningful reform” intended to do just that. The key point of the legislation is that it would authorize the president to withhold 50 percent of U.S. contributions to the United Nations if it does not institute serious changes. Coleman said Thursday that he would think about Gingrich’s advice to implement a “checklist” into the legislation where the president could make a measurable assessment of U.N. improvement.

Gingrich also reminded the committee that the United Nations “does not have a monopoly on the legitimacy on getting things done around the world.” Although the United Nations can be helpful in maintaining American interests around the world, it is not the only answer, he said.

Withholding dues has been used before. The Reagan administration used the tactic throughout Reagan’s presidency, said Anthony Clark Arend, the director of the Institute for International Law and Politics at Georgetown University.