A Spork in the Drawer

Because You Can't Get Enough World Bank News

It's a relief, I suppose: It's not Poodle Blair, it's not MC KatKillah Frist, it's Robert Zoellick:

U.S. President George W. Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. Trade Representative, as the new president for the World Bank to replace Paul Wolfowitz, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

[...]

Bush had said he wanted an American to succeed Wolfowitz, despite increasing calls from World Bank member countries and some U.S. lawmakers to throw the process open to a global pool of candidates.

A non-American? Like that's going to happen.

Still, it could have been worse. Which isn't saying much.

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Joke Of The Day

First it was rumored to be Tony Blair, now comes this:

The Wall Street Journal reports today on a shortlist of contenders for the job; topping that list is former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a loyal administration ally who retired from the Senate last year amid speculation that he would run for president, which he declined to do after his political fortunes fell with those of the administration.

Frist doesn't have much of a financial background; he was a respected heart surgeon before coming to the Senate. But while there, politics sometimes clouded even his medical judgment. During the controversy over Terri Schiavo, Frist reviewed a tape of Schiavo and said her doctors were wrong, that she was not in a persistent vegetative state. An autopsy after Schiavo's death showed that it was Frist who was wrong.

Nothing surprises me anymore.

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Can't Catch A Break

Bad days for the Notorious Comb-Licker:

PAUL Wolfowitz has really had a bad couple of weeks. He not only lost his job, he lost his girlfriend, too.

[...]

Sources say Riza, a brilliant feminist with a promising diplomatic career, was upset by all the publicity and the implication that she was getting ahead with the help of a powerful man. "She was furious about the embarrassment," said one source.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

(Yeah, yeah, I know. New York Post.)

[Via Think Progress.]

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Now That's Funny!

The Notorious Comb-Licker attempts to make nice with World Bank employees:

Wolfowitz said he would try and reach out to meet individually with staff.

"After reaching a difficult consensus yesterday, it is vitally important that we work together to restore calm and confidence and encourage the staff to focus on their important work," Wolfowitz said, adding that he had been flooded with phone calls of support from staff and people he met in his two years at the bank.

However, employee comments posted on an internal Web site suggested little appetite to speak with the former deputy U.S. defense secretary.

"Please just leave. You can take all your loyal employees with you. Who are you kidding?" one anonymous employee wrote.

That anonymous employee could be speaking for the overwhelming majority of Americans in regards to BushCo™.

[Via Think Progress.]

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Please Let this Be Just A Demented Rumor

Or my head will explode:

Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair is a contender for the job of president of the World Bank, according to one of America's most respected economists.

[...]

But Nobel prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz, a former senior vice-president and chief economist at the World Bank, told BBC Radio 5 Live Mr Blair was in the frame for the high-profile role.

He said: "He is one of the people that is clearly being discussed.

Nonetheless, it would keep with only appointing Loyal Bushies to everything.

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Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Buh bye:

"I am announcing today that I will resign as president of the World Bank Group effective at the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2007)," Wolfowitz said in a statement Thursday.

Now if only we could do something about all of those other long national nightmares...

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On The Other Hand...

...maybe he'll just drag it out:

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will not resign under the current "cloud" and would rather push the matter to a vote of the bank's board to clear his name, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

"Mr. Wolfowitz will not resign under this cloud and he will rather put this matter to a full vote," Wolfowitz's lawyer, Robert Bennett, told Reuters.

Why they always drag out the inevitable is beyond me.

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The End Is Nigh

World Bank board negotiating Wolfowitz resignation

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Wolfowitz Death Watch

It looks like BushCheney are preparing to throw Wolfie overboard:

The Bush administration softened its support for World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday, signaling a willingness to replace him if the bank's executive board resolves an ethics controversy without firing him.

"All options are on the table," said White House spokesman Tony Snow, addressing reporters at a morning briefing. "Members of the board, Mr. Wolfowitz, need to sit down and figure out what is in fact going to be best for this bank. . . ."

Wolfie can say to the White House, "If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too." Then DeFib Dick can reply, "Go fuck yourself."

Such a fucking administration!

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Bonus Wolfowitz!

When not semi-blaming his girlfriend Shaha Riza for his travails Wolfie defends her honor:

Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness Mr Wolfowitz declares: "If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too."

Such a potty-mouth!

Steve Clemons gets to the point:

If Wolfowitz does resign or is fired this week, Bush wants the price for this to be high and wants to extract concessions from the Europeans on other priorities Bush has. This is all deal-making, but still, Wolfowitz's prospects look bleaker by the hour.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

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Wolfowitz Death Watch

The Notorious Comb-Licker gets slapped:

A World Bank investigating committee sharply rebuked President Paul D. Wolfowitz, concluding that he broke ethics rules and undermined the integrity of the institution in engineering a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend.

"These actions manifest a lack of understanding for and a disregard for the institution as a public international organization," declared the committee's report, which was distributed to the bank's executive directors yesterday and released publicly last night. It calls on the executive board to assess "whether Mr. Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible."

In an attempt to defend himself Wolfie blames...his girlfriend!

Wolfowitz effectively blamed Riza for his predicament as well, saying that her "intractable position" in demanding a salary increase as compensation for her career disruption forced him to grant one to pre-empt a lawsuit.

If that isn't class what is?

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Wolfowitz Is Toast

Though he'll hang on as long as is possible:

Asked whether Wolfowitz should stay in his job, Cheney, in an interview with Fox News in Aqaba, Jordan, replied "I do."

The vice president went on to praise Wolfowitz, who was the No. 2 official at the Pentagon and an architect of the U.S.-led Iraq war, before he took the bank's helm in June 2005.

"I think Paul is one of the most able public servants I've ever known, and I've worked with him a lot over the years," Cheney said. "I think he's a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue."

An endorsement from Mr. 18% is surely the kiss of death.

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Wolfie Watch

How long is he going to delay the inevitable?

A special committee of the World Bank's governing board increased pressure on President Paul D. Wolfowitz to resign Monday, concluding that he went too far in arranging a job and pay raises for his companion.

The seven-member committee did not make its report public, but a bank official with ties to the panel said that Wolfowitz was given only a day or two to respond. The maneuver seemed designed to force him to step down quickly, thus avoiding further public action in the bruising controversy.

[...]

In a further sign of Wolfowitz's deteriorating position, one of his top aides, Kevin Kellems, resigned Monday. He had served as a senior advisor and director of external relations strategy during Wolfowitz's time at the bank.

"Given the current environment surrounding the leadership of the World Bank Group, it is very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution," Kellems said, adding that he was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

[...]

Kellems had worked at the Pentagon when Wolfowitz was deputy defense secretary.

Perhaps Wolfie's "golden parachute" could consist of a gross of combs.

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Whoops!

Comb-Licker has a problem:

Friday evening, the committee was debating whether to explicitly recommend that Wolfowitz resign, according to the sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, citing an ongoing probe into leaks.

Wolfowitz is finished.

Tick-tock tick-tock.

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Comb Licker Death Watch

Still doing the White House's bidding:

One of Paul Wolfowitz’s two handpicked deputies, Juan José Daboub, tried to water down references to climate change in one of the World Bank’s main environmental strategy papers, the bank’s chief scientist has told the Financial Times.

Mr Daboub, a conservative former finance minister from El Salvador, was brought into the bank by Mr Wolfo­witz. He is already under fire for allegedly trying to take out references to family planning in the bank’s Madagascar country assistance strategy and reduce its prominence in its new health sector strategy.

Once a neocon always a neocon.

The board of the World Bank has just about had enough.

Gone by Friday?

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Interesting

Is Paul "Comb Licker" Wolfowitz's "lady friend" a spy? At the very least, it makes you wonder just how much BushCheney care about national security.

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Yet More Wolfowitz!

By way of Kagro X we find that Paul Wolfowitz, even at the World Bank, is still well-enmeshed in the Neocon spider web:

The contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, said that it had been directed to hire Ms. Riza by the office of the under secretary for policy. The head of that office at the time was Douglas J. Feith, who reported to Mr. Wolfowitz.

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Mr. Feith, the former under secretary of defense, said he had no recollection of any request by his office to have Ms. Riza hired. The office of Mr. Wolfowitz said it had insufficient information to be able to comment on short notice.

Doug Feith...Doug Feith...that name sounds familiar. Oh, right:

Fifteen hundred people report to Feith in the Pentagon, where he is known for the profligacy of his policy suggestions. Tommy Franks, who led the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, has been much quoted as calling Feith “the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth,” apparently for ideas he proposed to Franks and his planners.

SAIC must be very proud.

Onward and upward, I say. Since the Notorious Comb-Licker and his squeeze are in a peck of ethical and possibly criminal trouble they have surely "lawyered-up," as the kids say. I wonder what lawyer would take a case like this...

Victoria Toensing, a lawyer representing Ms. Riza, said this evening that Ms. Riza went to Iraq as a volunteer and took a leave of absence from the World Bank, paying for her own benefits while she was on leave.

DING! DING! DING! The same Victoria Toensing who most recently slandered Valerie Plame before the House Intelligence Committee. digby:

Toensing's testimony was extremely difficult to listen to. She is an arrogant gorgon and lies as easily as she breathes. Waxman even said at the end that he knows her testimony was inaccurate and that he was going to leave the record open to correct all of her misstatements.

This is a very bad bunch of people.

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ADDED: Aravosis: "That's your tax dollars at work. Helping get senior Bush officials laid." Heh.

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Whoops!

I wonder what Ruth Wedgwood thinks about this:

The Pentagon ordered a U.S. contractor to hire a World Bank employee and girlfriend of then-Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 for work related to Iraq, the contractor said on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, said the Defense Department's policy office directed the company to enter a subcontract with Shaha Riza, under which she spent a month studying ways to form a government in Iraq.

They certainly do take care of their own.

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We're Big Meanies

Ruth Wedgwood thinks everybody is being silly by being concerned that Paul Wolfowitz was shoveling money to his squeeze, Shaha Ali Riza:

But this does not excuse a mob mentality that abuses the reputation of a particular female professional, much less a bank president. The internal documents released last week — at Wolfowitz's request — show that this slow-moving institution had no protocol for figuring out how to accommodate the career of a professional woman when her spouse or partner came to work in the same chain of command. This is becoming a more serious problem in today's workplace.

[...]

According to the documents on the bank's website, it was the ethics committee's own idea — not Wolfowitz's — to give Riza a promotion as she was being moved out for four years. She was transferred to the State Department to work on a grass-roots democracy project that has been praised by Secretary Condoleezza Rice. She was given the mid-range salary for her new level. This was a lot of money, but it was based on the bank's existing pay scales.

It was certainly not a corrupt favor to a girlfriend.

Or:

The Riza issue has come back to haunt Wolfowitz, as the bank's executive board is now considering what to do about revelations -- contained in documents it released Friday -- that Wolfowitz resolved the issue by personally arranging a bank salary and promotions for her in a temporary State Department post.

[...]

Wolfowitz has clashed with the staff over pay packages and authority he gave to aides Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems, whom he brought to the bank from the White House, installed in senior positions and rewarded with open-ended contracts and quarter-million-dollar, tax-free salaries, despite their lack of development experience.

Both staff and management also have raised concerns over what several described as Wolfowitz's insistence that the bank accelerate its lending to Iraq and open an office there. [Emphasis added.]

The LATimes identifies Wedgwood as a "professor of international law and diplomacy at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies" but as we've seen with another prominent newspaper those identifiers can be deceiving.

In fact, Wedgwood can fairly be called a hardcore neocon:

"She was recently appointed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a member of the Defense Policy Board, giving long-range strategy advice to the Secretary. She has consulted with the Department of Defense since September 11 on law of war issues, including the rules for conducting military commissions to try the war crimes of al Qaeda's terrorist combatants. She was also appointed by Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet to serve on the CIA's Historical Review Committee.

Besides being trusted by Rumsfeld Wedgwood was an advocate of the Iraq War from the beginning and dismissive of torture claims.

Anyway, the point here is that news organizations should reveal potential biases of those they publish. Wedgwood's close ties to the BushCheney administration are relevant.

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Getting It Wrong

The NYT's David Sanger writes:

At its core, the fight about whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank is a debate about Mr. Bush and his tumultuous relationship with the rest of the world, particularly the bank, the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which have viewed themselves — at various moments since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — as being at war with the Bush White House and its agenda.

Funny, I thought the issue here was that the Notorious Comb-Sucker was shoveling money to his honey. But thanks to Sanger I now know that the issue is hatred of George.

Thanks for clearing that up, David!

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Once A Corrupt Neocon...

...always a corrupt neocon:

Paul Wolfowitz was under pressure to resign as president of the World Bank on Thursday after admitting he was personally involved in securing a large pay rise and promotion for a Bank official with whom he was romantically involved.

The Bank president issued a public apology, saying: “I made a mistake for which I am sorry”.

The apology came after the Financial Times revealed that Mr Wolfowitz ordered the World Bank’s head of human resources to offer Shaha Riza the pay rise and promotion as part of a secondment package.

I guess being the architect of a disastrous war just wasn't enough.

A classic Wolfowitz moment:

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