When we went home yesterday (at noon), the 7 board members of the World Bank who were to decide whether or not Paul Wolfowitz was in the wrong, re: giving an unjustifiable pay raise and promotion to his girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza, were running a day late on turning in their review, even though bank officials had already told the Times that the panel would “eventually find that [Wolfowitz] had violated bank rules barring conflicts of interest.”
Last evening, they finally got around to doing whatever they needed to do to make it official (spell check?), and decided Mr. President’s actions had, indeed, represented a conflict of interest, and had broken internal rules. The panel made no recommendation on how Wolfowitz should be reprimanded, leaving it up to a meeting of the 24-nation World Bank board, scheduled for later this week. An official with the bank said that The Wolf will not resign over the controversy, despite the “widespread feeling” that it is “Wolfowitz to finish his term because of the damage to the bank’s credibility and its ability to be effective.”
While we wouldn’t stop you if you were so inclined to register the website www.firewolfowitz.com, do it for the right reasons: maybe because you think his presidency has been a disaster*, not because he might’ve thrown a few dollars that weren’t his own at the ladies. There is, after all, a long tradition (Todd Thomson, $xxx for “airfare”) of public(ish) service (Lord Browne, $xx.xx for two hours of “consulting”) and perks which include the attention of pretty women who are not your wife. Let’s raise the level of discourse here.**
World Bank panel finds Wolfowitz broke rules [Reuters]
Deal Is Offered for Chief’s Exit at World Bank [NYT]
*or not! Everyone can have their own opine on DB; just remember your safe word.
**well, not here, here.
Comments (18)
Leave a comment
You can log in with your account or comment as a guest below.
IS THERE ANYONE LINKED TO THE BUSH ADMIN WHO ISN’T A THEIF OR A LIAR?
yay! now the world bank can go back to full-scale corruption :)
just think of how much of our tax $$ ends up in swiss bank accounts held by african generals :)
Just the thought makes me want to celebrate!
Um, why has Wolfowitz’ presidency been a disaster? because he had the temerity to challenge the worthless and corrupt World Bank to not be you know worthless and corrupt. No one would give two fucks about the president of the World Bank if the media and Dems didn’t have their panties in a wad about him being part of the “neocon cabal”.
The World Bank is a putrid institution responsible for more poverty and suffering around the world than any other global institution other than perhaps its sister, the IMF, or the UN.
BIC: what’s it like giving george bush a hand job?
BIC, mao and stalin did quite a bit in terms of creating mass poverty and starvation … we shouldn’t give all the credit to just these worthless international instituations.
I was thinking that you Dealbreaker folks were smart cutting edge “in the Money” people but after seeing these lame ill informed posts on Wolfowitz I’m starting to wonder. I had to ask one of my aid worker friends on the ground in Africa what they thought about this after reading this http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117764006775184381-search.html?KEYWORDS=Africa+%26+Wolfowitz&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
and this is the response I got. They will remain nameless but I can say its an agency that is very large.
WWBS “What Would BONO say?”
You cant blame everything on Bush! Your hatred blinds you from real problems.
Live8, Live Aid, The Red Campaign and the rest are just drive bys “to Fake you dumb ass Americans out”.
Andrew Coffey
CoffeyGrinds
Live on MN1.com
9am CST and 12Noon CST
From my BAFOTG.
An off-the-record opinion, yes?
I think the Op-Ed is absolutely right. Wolfowitz has been committed to helping fragile states in Africa make the turn toward getting back on their feet – and he’s taking on corruption with is absolutely pervasive across Africa.
But my understanding of him from speaking to those who know him – I do not know him personally – is that he is intractable, believes his course is always the right course, doesn’t care much for dissenting opinion, and can be abusive. He came into the job with a lot of bluster, immediately took on some sacred cow institutions and ways of operating, and pissed off a lot of people. So now, with this scandal involving his girlfriend, his long list of enemies at the World Bank are pouncing.
My two cents – again, just for your personal edification.
Hope you’re well…
If Wolfowitz had any honour, he would resign. He violated the rules. He should pay. I don’t know why Wolfowitz (Neocon, Chosenite) continues to hang on. I suppose the thinking is that by remaining there he, and by extension the Bushies, can continue to wield influence. But with his term of office discredited, I’m not sure if this is viable.
The World Bank, WTO, UN and other intergovernmental bodies and NGOs, are generally corrupt and represent a significant threat to national sovereignty.
BTW, eff MB-P et. al.
Why is Wolfowitz staying on at World Bank, yet Lord Browne resigned from BP? They have in essence been accused of the same thing. What’s going on here? Any explanation?
you’re an idiot, Coffey…wolfowitz is one of the most corrupt “human being”s on earth.
b/c bp was part of a witch hunt..wolf should be out (b/c like this post says, of his terrible work, not necc the girl)
someone want to explain to me why the hell the world bank still exists in the first place?
It would be nice if DealBreaker read a newspaper or two. Then they might know a little something about what’s going on at the World Bank instead of writing this garbage.
lefties are going down … lost canada, lost germany, now lost france :)
For the record, I suspect that the entire campaign to oust Wolfowitz has largely been motivated by a desire (a) to get revenge for Iraq and (b) to expunge an outsider from the World Bank bureaucracy. Nothing in Bess’s post implies otherwise. In fact, if you read closely, you’ll see that this is actually a criticism of the charges against Wolfie.
talking about this LIVE on MN1.com now
Ac
Ill read some of your posts
It’s about time someone nailed Wolfie & Co. for Iraq! Let’s be honest here, the war in Iraq has been a disaster. Let’s not let Wolfie’s crimes in orchestrating the war get flushed down the Media Memory Hole.
Thanks for the shout-out Andrew. We’re fans of MN1.com.
So nice to see anti-semitism not from the usual suspects here at DB! It’s like Daily KOS/www.philipweiss.org or something – there’s no evil in the world that isn’t the fault of the JOOOOS.
There’s a little side note that a husband and wife can work at the world bank, but not two people having sex outside of marriage. So his girlfriend gets fired without cause – since she worked there before he was appointed president – and then they try to fire him for getting dragged into her settlement, which he tried to avoid.
Definitely check out the WSJ’s pieces on all of the “good work” at the WB. Helps show how jihadist traitors want to get Wolfowitz but believe that the Republicans are making up 9/11 and every terror attack/arrest.