Wolfowitz's World Bank End Near
In international finance circles, Michael Mussa is a legendary figure who used to work at the thin air levels at the International Monetary Fund. For those interested, Mussa's story is in one of the few real page-turners on international finance I have read, The Chastening: Inside the Crisis that Rocked the Global Financial System and Humbled the IMF by Paul Blustein.
Mussa is judicious, non-partisan, and seriously respected. He articulated yesterday what most think about World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's situation -- whether they blame him or not for various misdeeds.
From Bloomberg:
"The way he can make the strongest contribution to the bank is by resigning," said Michael Mussa, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and now a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "When you get to that stage, it doesn't matter how you got to that situation."
I have no inside information on whether Wolfowitz will resign tomorrow or Friday -- but nearly everyone engaged in this game thinks Wolfowitz can't win at this point -- particularly after the White House essentially washed its hands of his fate yesterday.
If I were advising Wolfowitz -- since his press advisor Kevin Kellems is on his way out -- I'd encourage a late in the day resignation on Friday just to sidestep much of the news cycle and catch the weekend shows off guard. That's not what I want -- but a smart player would play a bad hand that way.
-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note
Wolfie will probably still get his severance even though he's being fired.
Hopefully now he can go write that sex & monogomy column he's always wanted to work on.
But since the European countries and the rest of the world are at odds with the US, why they don't just expel the US and move the headquarters overseas. Same thing with the UN. It seems they would work much better off US-shores.
May 9, 2007 7:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wolfie is on my top ten list of "worst American monsters on the planet."
1. Karl Rove
2. Dick "The Monster" Cheney
3. "Georgie" DUBYA Bush
4. Donald "Rummy" Rumsfeld
5. Paul "Neo-Con King" Wolfowitz
6. George "It's not my fault" Tenet
7. John "Sold his Soul" McCain
8. Condoleezza "Smarter than she acts" Rice
9. Laura "The Enabler" Bush
10. Newt "If they beg, I'll run" Gengrich
May 9, 2007 7:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's a lot here I don't understand. I despise Wolfie for all the usual and well-known reasons, but the subtext of this World Bank thing has me confused. Apparently, the bank ethics committee either agreed or told Wolfie directly that his girlfriend should get a compensation package for loss of income and loss of potential promotion, since she had to resign over possible conflict of interest given her relationship to Wolfie (COI standards like that are utterly foreign to Republicans!). The committee also told him that they themselves had no authority to direct the HR division or the comptroller or whomever disburses such funds, to do so, and so Wolfie had to do issue the order.
So the only issue here, apparently, is the amount of the compensation that Wolfie ordered. Not the fact that he DID order compensation. Hey, it's exorbitant compared to salaries I'm used to, but that's nothing new.
Wolfie says he "cleared," or at least talked about, the amount of the compensation with someone on the ethics committee; the someone says he didn't. Either way, does this really warrant his dismissal?
Can someone provide more details than are in the Times?
May 9, 2007 7:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the backstory.
The idea that Wolfowitz cleared the comp with the ethics committee was a lie disseminated by Robin Cleveland, one of Wolfie's cronies.
From the FT:
The facts aren't in dispute. Wolfie is just holding out for an honorable discharge from the WB. Doesn't look like he's going to get one.
May 9, 2007 8:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kevin Kellems is out. Robin Cleveland is next. Paul Wolfowitz will soon follow suit, clearing the way for the next World Bank president, Michael Brown!
May 9, 2007 9:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Moved
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. Nietzsche
May 9, 2007 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Try this article from Steve written in 2006.
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. Nietzsche
May 9, 2007 9:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The way he can make the strongest contribution to the bank is by resigning." That's the kind of euphemistic, team player language that turns me off. Beltway guys, get over it. Since when is making the strongest contribution to the bank among Wolfowitz's goals?
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
May 9, 2007 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Steve's insistence on appealing to the better nature of Republicans mystifies me--but he's always done that.
I suppose someone has to have optimism.
May 9, 2007 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
The sooner Paul Wolfowitz is in a position to not have any control over any amounts of our governments funds the better. Let him go out and make money the old fashion way.
May 9, 2007 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, I think this is good politics. Isn't a statement like this is a fairly strong threat (if you're in a position to make threats)?
May 9, 2007 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
For all we know, Laura could be just an airhead. I would replace her with Gonzales.
Gengrich-Khan is perhaps evil (and he understand what it takes to be to the right of Attila, being a historian), but also more of a has-been, so no more evil as a never-been like Perle. I would replace him with a leading theocrat of the hour.
Rumsfeld is also a has-been, but the breadth and depth of his accomplishments are such that he deserves a spot for years to come. He is also conversant in history, and unlike Gengrich-Khan, he could put Attila-like ideas into practice. But Rice? To me, she is to much of a non-person to have her own evil. I also need a spot for a high theoretician of torture, like Prof. Yoo.
Which makes it an all-male list, with only one minority and with WASPs heavily over-represented. Dobson could take the theocratic spot to be a token Catholic, I guess.
May 9, 2007 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
So what do you want? Taking his brain out with a handgun would be more honorable, perhaps, but bear in mind that taxpayers of all developed countries would pick the carpet-cleaning bill.?
I recall a dictionary of diplomatic phrases, with entries like "X came to somewhat unusual conclusions" = "X is barking mad" (I do not know an American phrase that would ring so nicely as "barking mad", so I leave it in the British original).
May 9, 2007 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I read the article and the fact remains that it is the amount of the settlement, not the issue of whether it was proper to bestow such a settlement (or "secondment" as they refer to it) that's at issu.
In other words, the ethics committee is saying, "You're giving her HOW much?"
Also, the wording of the misleading statement is arguably ambiguous. It doesn't claim that the committee or the counsel approved the AMOUNT of the secondment; it says they approved the secondment, which in they did in principle, since they suggested that such a secondment be made in the first place--didn't they?
I'm sure Wolfie and his cronies are loathed for good reasons at the Bank, but so far it looks to me like they might have been suckered into a breach of something, and maybe not ethics. To sum up:
1. The ethics committee told Wolfie his girfriend deserved to be compensated for loss of losition and potential promotion.
2. They then said he had to determine the amount of compensation and issue the notice to have it paid. (Did they give him any parameters or guidelines? Did he ask for any)
3. He did so.
4. They said it was too much.
5. Wolfie and his allies tripped over their own schwanzes in trying to present a good case for him.
6. Having done so, the Board now wants him out.
I'm happy to to hear how I've mischaracterized it. I am NOT a Wolfist in sheep's clothing, believe me! But I'm curious to learn if the bank people spun a little web for Wolfie to get caught in.
May 9, 2007 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would leave Condi on and add my former 7th grade American history student John "unitary executive" Yoo. Condi can have a friend killed in the Birmingham bombing when she was a little girl and then grow up to work for an oil company, get a tanker named after her, and cheerlead for a war on oil-rich Iraq - that is pretty despicable. She and John can tie for a place.
Tom
May 9, 2007 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yet, how to ponder on Wolfowitz without bearing in mind the wonderful poetic Ode written for him, posted at Blackcommentator.com in December, 2003. (it tells the story of the rocket hitting his hotel in Baghdad while he slept)
I apologize for posting this for those who have heard this tale before:
Ode to Wolfowitz
O sweet, sweet Irony. How comforting thy terrible countenance became to the wise when thou chose to turn thy gaze to the proud and haughty and administer their comeuppance…
O Wolfowitz...
It was with great woe that the wise beheld thou in thy smug righteousness, when thou would not bear reproach for thy excesses and appetites, thy shock and awe, where mothers in Babylon wept...
And the wise witnessed thee before the senate, with thy chest puffed up with proud boasts, demanding the senate yoke more taxes onto the necks of the poor, so thou could pry ever more no-bid contracts for thy Caesar and his coin masters...
O Wolfowitz, Vice-regent of Neo-Babylon....
After thou filled thy coffers with gold and heaped contempt upon the meek who dared beg for the crumbs from thy Caesar's table, thou devised plans to survey the land of the vanquished and behold thy spoils of war...
Lo, how couldst thou neglect, that thy withering presence would greatly kindle the hot displeasure of the weak as they witnessed thy proud mouth boast of thy great works, of what was, and was to come…
Even while yet, the great crowd still awaits thy showing of these, weapons o' mass destruction, that thy footman, Uncle Powell, did bellow in a wroth voice full of war, and swore an oath before the great assembly of the kings of the world, were hid of every shadow of every rock in Babylon...
The vanquished, not able to bear the baneful discomfiture of thy haughty visage, made council to prepare for thee, a strong cup of trembling...
In thy infallible omniscience, thou failed to heed the ministrations of thy Prefect, Pontius Bremer, who establishes his chambers in fortified walls and cities and makes for his daily company, fierce men of war and bravery renowned, and will not suffer to leave their presence...
In thy fervent desire to make proof for thy Caesar of this, progress and security that thou hadst allegedly wrought amongst the vanquished, who have bitterly wept for the sake of their sons and daughters, thou proceeded to lay thy head in the midst of the maelstrom, thy heart made glad and confident by thy own proud boasts...
With great marvel, the wise witnessed thee, shocked and awed from thine own bedchambers in thy underwear, after thou were served but a meager sip from this same cup of trembling thou pitilessly force to the lips of the weak, gourd after gourd...
What jest greeted thee, when thou strived to strengthen thy trembling knees and made haste to clear thy throat with thy Caesar's customary gargle of, staying the course, dead-enders, Baathists, foreign instigators and such like, even as thou fled for thy life....
O Wolfowitz...
Wherefore dost thou now deny thyself the rapturous joy of a Mesopotamian sunset...?
May 9, 2007 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...the old fashion way."
Write a memoir, get a 4$ million dollar advance, and then appear on Sixty Minutes et al. to drum up more sales?
Tom
May 9, 2007 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL
At least that does not come out of the taxpayer’s money. I have to say I'd not watch or buy to read, so it would not come in any part from me.
May 9, 2007 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you saying that you taught this guy Am. History? Do you remember what grade you gave him?
It might be wise not to repeat that claim outside of friendly spaces. :-)
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. Nietzsche
May 9, 2007 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Believe it or not he was an excellent student and a nice guy. I don't remember the part of the course where I extolled the unitary executive theory because it never happened. i do remember explaining the complaints against George III and Parliament. I guess he was absent that day.
Tom
May 10, 2007 3:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that Wolfie did not get a green light for setting the salary of his girlfriend.
It really reminds of George Constanza defense "if I were only told that this kind of thing is being frown upon" (after an accusation of having sex with cleaning staff on the top of his desk). If you are not the owner of an outfit, you do not set the salary for your loved ones. You do not review their performance. Etc. Does one need a specialist office to figure that out?
Instead, Wolfowitz ordered a fat raise. Which means that World Bank contributed ca. 60k/year to enrich the sex life of its President who could easily afford as much on his 500k/year salary.
May 10, 2007 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink