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PATHETICALLY LIKE A MARTYR. Hilzoy offers the best summary for Paul Wolfowitz's ignominious departure from the World Bank that I've seen so far:
A few suggestions for his successor:(1) If you don't want to resign under a cloud, don't create one.(2) If you think people are out to get you, don't hand them ammunition.(3) If you are worried about your reputation, remember that it is not enhanced by clinging so tightly to your job that when you are finally dragged away, you leave claw marks.(4) Insisting that the Bank "clear your name" is pointless. Everyone knows that the nice things people say in order to get rid of someone they despise mean nothing. If you insist that they say such things, all that will happen is that people will be reminded that adults should not throw temper tantrums in public. Moreover, your willingness to put something this petty and stupid above the needs of an institution whose aim is to eliminate poverty will destroy any tattered remnants of your reputation.The whole episode strikes me as largely yes another manifestation of The Politics of Resentment. Picking a major architect of a disastrous (and, more to the point, exceptionally unpopular outside the U.S.) war to head an international institution that relies on the support of other nations never made much sense; it was always likely that Wolfowitz would not be able to accomplish his goals, and certainly the fact that he was advocating them would make achieving even worthy objectives harder. Fighting to keep him on when it was absolutely clear that he could not be effective compounded the original mistake.--Scott Lemieux
