WOLFOWITZ IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. Reuters makes it pretty clear that Paul Wolfowitz is not long for his job:
The bank's board of shareholder nations will meet as soon as Tuesday, possibly followed by a second meeting, to decide whether Paul Wolfowitz will be forced out or given the chance to negotiate his departure, according to board sources who declined to be identified.
According to the sources, it is virtually impossible for Wolfowitz to stay on as president for the rest of his term because of the damage to the bank's credibility and its ability to be effective in its mission to reduce global poverty.
Mark Kleiman and Kevin Drum both point out the starkest evidence yet that Wolfowitz had been intentionally misleading in public statements about how he handled his girlfriend's transfer -- the immediate, personal scandal embroiling him right now really does seem to be legit and real. Given that fact, particularly in light of his emphasized anti-corruption agenda, it's hard to imagine how his continued service as president can help the World Bank carry out its mission.
I'm a conventional Wolfowitz-hating liberal, of course, but I really don't think there's any cause for shedding a tear for him here. Beyond the scandal and his widely criticized approach to actually managing those who work at the Bank -- shutting people out of decision processes, installing GOP loyalists from outside in top posts, etc. -- there's the fact, as made clear in John Cassidy's semi-sympathetic New Yorker profile, that Wolfowitz never even began to pursue his ballyhooed (and, in principle, potentially quite promising) anti-corruption mission with any remotely coherent or consistent approach or plan, instead opting for capricious and semi-random actions targeting various countries, carried out in ways seemingly designed to alienate his own workforce.
--Sam Rosenfeld
