The investigating board at the World Bank found Paul Wolfowitz guilty of violating protocol, punishment still to be determined although none of the likely outcomes seem to involve him keeping his job. A top aide has already resigned. I have to admit that the less civil side of me wants to see Paul fight this thing to the bitter end. It will just make his salty loser tears taste that much sweeter.
Maybe I’m not a very good guy, and maybe I’m a little bit annoyed that American kids continue to die in a pointless ego trip war that Wofowitz personally helped make happen. Maybe both. I guess history will judge.
Rome Again
Oh Tim, please don’t go there. Schadenfreude is best served cold, and the last thing we need is a guilt complex over wishing those who do evil get crapped on. It’s a social more, what goes around comes around, please don’t trip out over it. Watching these bozos go down is an occasion for popcorn. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving cabal.
raff
Meh, screw the “good guy” crap… Wolfowitz deserves whatever he gets & a good measure more. There’s no shame in taking a small amount of joy in seeing a detestable sleeze-ball take a dive.
It’s just a damn shame that Wolfowitz will probably never be held accountable for his real crimes. To see him go down on a not-uncommon charge of getting your girlfriend a cushy, high paying job is like seeing Al Capone go down for tax evasion.
Keep in mind, that if Wolfie manages to hang on ’til June/01, he gets a huge bonus for “performance” & time spent on the job (Steve Clemons at thewashingtonnote.com puts the “bonus” at around $400,000… not exactly chump change).
Wolfowitz is already gone — all that remains is to hammer out the terms of his departure. In the meantime, he’s stuffing his pockets with both hands before he makes his official exit. A class act right to the end.
The Other Steve
I can’t say I really care.
The World Bank is simply full of the sons, daughters and friends of important people who are being given nice cushy jobs with excellent pay and don’t really have to do anything.
It’s the Island of Misfit Toys, except the toys aren’t going to save the world.
The Other Steve
BTW, if you want a fun, inside the stupid story about people who do not work for a living.
Michelle Malkin whining about how James Lileks is whining about being shifting from Columnist to Reporter by the Star Tribune
What makes it stupid
Star Tribune announce it’s laying off 145 jobs, including 50 news reporters
so Lileks is whining about how he gets to keep a job by doing something different and useful.
merlallen
No death penalty?
Zifnab
Yeah, is it me or is “Getting fired from a giant cushy job when you know you’ll just get picked up by some screwball conservative think-tank in another giant cushy job” not the worst punishment you could hand Mr. Wolfowitz.
Where’s a good old fashioned lynching when you need one? Someone get Macaca’s rope.
craigie
If there were any justice, they would drop him in Iraq to get the $20billion he promised us.
ThymeZone
People named Paul are inherently better than other people.
Or, so I’ve been told.
srv
One day, when Freedom bursts forth and the terrorists in the World Bank are defeated, you will all realize what a hero Paul is.
I, for one, can’t wait for his next assignment. Who will he free next?
slick
Kids?
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Either Wolfowitz is a callous, egotistical fool whose moronic policies helped foment this generation’s Vietnam War experience, or he’s a bold, noble genius who helped bring the Iraqi people freedom from both brutal dictatorship and stodgy Old World Socialism, shepherding them onto the path of democracy and capitalism. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle. In another six months or so, once the impetuous passions and short-sighted political anglings have subsided, we’ll have a much clearer look at this thing.
By someone named Paul, no doubt. That’s okay, as long as it wasn’t Ron Paul.
Well, when he publishes his next book, it’ll undoubtedly free us all from the shackles of reason.
Redhand
Absolutely! This piece of garbage needs to go before he can cash in on the obscene $400K “performance bonus” that he’ll get June 1. Don’t expect him to resign, however. I’m sure the arrogant son-of-a-bitch will have to be fired, damaging yet another American interest in the process. From the linked article:
FWIW, despite my “conservative” leanings, I too happen to be just a little pissed off “that American kids continue to die in a pointless ego trip war that Wofowitz personally helped make happen.”
Punchy
Apparently the WB has no balls whatsoever
Shorter–We’re damn sure he’s a crook, but we wouldn’t DARE fire him, cuz we’re soooo scared of Big Bad Bush.
Barry
The Other Steve Says:
“I can’t say I really care.
The World Bank is simply full of the sons, daughters and friends of important people who are being given nice cushy jobs with excellent pay and don’t really have to do anything.
It’s the Island of Misfit Toys, except the toys aren’t going to save the world.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘Daddy’ or ‘Uncle’ were the most important qualifications of many who work there.
However, I *would* be very surprised if Wolfowitz hadn’t racked up the biggest body and misery count of anybody there. Possibly of everybody there put together, thought that would be pushing it.
RSA
Of course, you’d have to be licking Paul Wolfowitz’s eyeballs to really appreciate the vengeance, but let’s not go there. . .
I’m with Zifnab (as usual, it seems). This may be a blow to Wolfowitz’s enormous ego, but it’s like seeing a billionaire CEO forced into retirement. “Yeah, that’ll show him.”
Paul Wartenberg
That is so true. And this scandal is answering the question “How f-cked up do you have to be for even them to kick you out of the clubhouse?” Now we know.
Paul Wartenberg
Ah, lemme check. (notices lack of wealth, social life, etc.) Nope. Doesn’t pan out that way. I think the hypothesis should be “People who kiss Cheney’s ass *think* they are inherently better than other people.”
kritter
Wolfie will hang on until June, collect his nice bonus for a job well done, and then make an ungraceful exit. Shortly after he’ll be picked up by think tank AEI, so that he can help to plan our attack on Iran and other states that support terrorist organizations. If a Republican wins the WH in ’08, our little neocon will be back in business along with Feith, Perle and other recycled has-beens from the Bush era.
demimondian
Ah, but you see, Paul W., the are many ways of being better than other people. You can be a good investigative reporter, like paul l., or you can be a cunning regurgitator of marginally true statements, like Paul L. You can be a worthless nepot, like Paul W., or a worthwhile no-pet, like Paul W.
Rome Again
I can tell you my ex probably believes this. That doesn’t make it true.
That’s not what I told you. What I told you is that the person most Paul’s were named after (Saul/Paul the self proclaimed desciple of the new testament in the Bible) was inherently EVIL.
Jimmie
My guess is that th WB isn’t in a big hurry to toss him out on his ear because he’s already released documents that demonstrate pretty solidly that he did what he did because the Ethics Committee of the WB directed him to do so.
Let us not forget that he tried to recuse himself from anything involving Ms. Riza before he even took the job and the Ethics Committee refused to let him. Let us also not forget that the raise and job posting Ms. Riza received was approved by the WB before Wolfowitz had anything to do sith it. His approval was the final step in the process and he only did so after direct prompting from the head of the Ethics Committee.
But let’s not let anything like evidence or actual communications that have been released public get in the way of a little kangaroo court. Or your victory dance.
Nash
Tim, according to the insiders being quoted with increasing frequency lately, you have to wait 20-30 Friedmans to have History’s Judgment, which we are assured will be some form of “See? The people knew nothing and The Decider/Commander Guy knew all”.
Even George Amberson Minafer didn’t have to wait that long to get his comeuppance. I wonder, though. As was the case for Mr. Minafer, will there be anyone around to gloat when we get our own well-deserved comeuppance and finally see the error of our ways?
A democratic republic can be so inconvenient at times, don’t you know.
/sarcasm
Rome Again
If Ms. Riza had gotten a job elsewhere, he wouldn’t have anything to recuse himself for. It looks slippery, even if it isn’t. The fact is, he became head of an organization that employed the woman he was sleeping with. Enough said.
Punchy
Being the intrepid reporter of all things pro-Wolfie, and showing us the error in your ways, you’ll supply us with a link to this info, right?
Again, you’ve got a link to prove this, right? You wouldn’t be just another dishonest righty just making shit up again, would you?
demimondian
Wolfie would like to claim that the Ethics committee told him to do what he did — and it’s true that it told him to do some things he did. The problem, Jimmie, is that there’s testimony that he also did things the Ethics Committee told him absolutely not to do. If I tell you “Go get a snack from the fridge, but don’t touch the strawberries in the cooler” do you think it’s ok to take those strawberries? After all, they *are* a snack in the frige, aren’t they?
Rome Again
My guess is that the WB is full of good ole boys who have cushy do-nothing jobs and don’t want to shake up the status quo, and the fact that they’re even considering any kind of sanctions at all is NOT good for Wolfie in the least. They try to keep those things under wraps.
kritter
jimmie-
The head of the Ethics Committee testified to the board that this was not actually true. I would also be interested in seeing the documents that Wolfowitz is referring to. If there is so much international opposition to his remaining, he should be aware that he is jeopardizing the WB’s mission by doing so. My guess is that he and his lawyer are dragging out the process so that he can still collect the big bonus in June.
Zifnab
I suspect that Wolfie stepped on a great many toes at the World Bank, and this is the only “illegal” thing they could get him on. But that, if you could be fired for pulling a John Bolton and pissing off every last man and woman in your office, he’d have been fired a long time ago. Take the cases in India and Africa, where Wolfowitz denied aid money even after countries began complying with his stiff anti-corruption regulations. Though not technically “illegal” it did piss of a great many rank-and-file WBers.
It kinda reminds me of how Rumsfeld went into the Defense Department to “shake things up” and ended up putting us on the loosing end of two different wars. Sometimes a little change is a good thing. Sometimes a lot of change is a good thing. Sometimes, its nice to have a guy who doesn’t have his head up his ass running our banks and our military.
Wilfred
Well, bitter him than us. In any case, if we leave him at the World Bank he won’t follow us home.
ThymeZone
Tat, too, unless they become cannon fodder, like Scooter.
Then they are ….. disposable.
Detlef
Ohh?
So the next time the IRS investigates you about missing tax declarations, simply tell them that you thought the anonymous e-mail snitching on you solved the matter.
No further action necessary.
kritter
Well, one of the things that has folks riled up is that Wolfowitz surrounded himself with two aides that he brought with him from the Pentagon, (much as Bush surrounded himself with a small inner circle of trusted aides)who had little experience with development, but who were paid over $200,000 a year. Experienced personnel at the bank were rebuffed in favor of these people (one of whom just resigned). Wolfies style was imperial arrogance and he insisted on setting up a branch of the WB in Iraq. This was difficult and expensive because of obvious security problems. They had to provide a lot of security for Wolfowitz himself, when he travelled, because of his role in planning the Iraq War.
grumpy realist
Funny about that “but I just did what the Ethics Board told me to do!”
At least two people on the Ethics Board say differently, punk.
kritter
I love the way these Republicans never admit that they made anything up (like Wolfowitz’s assertion that his girlfriend’s raises and promotion was vetted by the WB Ethics Committee). When the truth inevitably surfaces, they just “back away from the claim”. Condi Rice has used this tactic through State Dept spokesmen many times.
Tsulagi
You know, maybe you shouldn’t be pushing too hard for Wolfie’s ouster from the WB. Be careful what you wish for.
Because with this dumbass president, he just might reward Wolftard’s Pentagon/WB performance with a recess appointment naming him to a position they’re having a little difficulty filling…War Czar. He’d probably then bring Feith back to be his chief czarette. You can never fail too spectacularly for this admin.
kritter
Alberto Gonzales may soon become available, after he receives his Medal of Freedom.:)
mrmobi
Seems to me there has been a real slow-down in the medal game lately. I suppose Abu Gonzales might get one, but I, for one, would take that as a sign of the end-times.
grumpy realist
White House still supporting Wolfie.
I was going to ask “what do you have to do to get fired around here?!” but realized that, oh yeah, simply tell Dubya his war ain’t going to work out. Result, instant massacre.