For some reason watching Paul Wolfowitz go down for a nepotism scandal rather than for spearheading a galactic disaster of a war feels like seeing Al Capone go down for tax evasion. You get the punishment but somehow it lacks justice.
The former chairman of the World Bank’s ethics committee yesterday accused the institution’s embattled president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, of misleading a panel investigating his role in granting his girlfriend a substantial pay raise.
In a written submission to the investigating committee, the former ethics chairman, Ad Melkert, contradicted Wolfowitz’s assertion that he fully informed bank officers of his handling of his girlfriend’s transfer to the State Department and that his actions had their blessing
[…] “It is completely incomprehensible that subsequently Mr. Wolfowitz did exactly what he originally had proposed not to do: to engage directly in personnel matters concerning his partner,” Melkert said. […] Melkert’s words came a day after Roberto Da?ino, a former general counsel for the bank, told the investigating committee that Wolfowitz had acted “incorrectly” in instructing the bank’s vice president for human resources to extend “an extraordinary salary increase,” according to his written submission.Da?ino excoriated Wolfowitz, saying he subsequently withheld information about the raise, “apparently trying to deceive the board, the staff, and the general public” and adding that Wolfowitz had “damaged the reputation of the bank and eroded his moral authority to lead.”
In other words Paul Wolfowitz’s tenure at the World Bank has turned out exactly the way that I expected it would, up to and including demonizing his critics (“Wolfowitz cast himself as the victim of a “smear campaign.” ). I suppose antisemitism was unavailable. The article goes into much more detail, including the likely verdict: “His testimony did not appear to change the disposition of the bank’s governing board to pursue an end to his tenure, ideally via his resignation.” Click the link if flopsweat is your thing.
***Update***
Leading indicators point to buh-bye.