I had no idea Wolfie was this dumb.
Wolfowitz admits personal error at World Bank
AUSTIN BAY BLOG
Paul Wolfowitz has made economic reform and anti-corruption pillars of his stint at the World Bank. Good for him, because corruption saps the economic and political vitality of far too many developing nations.
Often corruption in the Third World amounts to doing favors for family members (hello Kofi Annan), clan, and tribe.
Wolfowitz has made World Bank loans contingent on reducing corruption and encouraging accountability.
However…but…get a load of this.
And talk about self defeat.
Wolfowitz got involved in a promotion and pay issue with his girlfriend. HIs girlfriend works at the World Bank. And apparently on his staff.
What a nobrainer. Blatant nepotism in a public institution. Credit Wolfowitz with appropriate contrition, if after the fact. Wolfowitz also says he informed the board of this relationship when he joined the back. That was the right move — but he should have recused himself from promotion and pay issues.
The lede:
"World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz admitted on Thursday he made a mistake and apologized for his handling of the promotion and pay increase of his girlfriend and staffer Shaha Riza.
"I proposed to the board that they establish some mechanism to judge whether the agreement reached was a reasonable outcome," Wolfowitz said in a statement he read at a news conference before upcoming meetings of finance ministers in Washington this weekend.
"I will accept any remedies they propose," he added.
Overweaning arrogance and lack of self reflection are weaknesses of the Wolfowitz-Hadley-Libby-Feith crew. As a group they were well-suited for Beltway political wars — the kind of Beltway congressional and executive agency infighting that Rumsfeld (and Cheney, Libby's boss) thought they would face in their battle for Pentagon reform and reorganization. 9/11 changed the mission. Instead of a figurative battle in the Beltway's arena, the civilized world faced a long war with barbarism, a long, bloody war that placed a preimum on strategic clarity, personal courage and perseverance, not the contacts on your Rolodex. After 9/11 the entire lot should have been eased out in favor of experienced, genuine war fighters — real war fighters instead of Beltway Clerks.
World Bank employees believe Wolfowitz has compromised the institution's integrity. They certainly have a case:
"But the World Bank's employee representative group called for Wolfowitz to resign during a staff meeting at the bank.
"The president must acknowledge that his conduct has compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the World Bank Group and has destroyed the staff's trust in his leadership," according to written remarks presented at the meeting by staff association chair Alison Cave and obtained by Reuters."
Note critics want to use this scandal as a reason to end US leadership at the World Bank. The Bush Administration must fight for US leadership. But what a steep hill to climb. WOlfowitz' personal behavior has undermined the legitimacy of his public anti-corruption policy.
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