Wolfowitz Fight Has Subplot

[rodeodance]

Source: nytimes



April 14, 2007
News Analysis
Wolfowitz Fight Has Subplot
By DAVID E. SANGER

WASHINGTON, April 13 — When President Bush appointed Paul D. Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank two years ago, the White House had to put down an insurrection among European nations that viewed the administration’s best-known neoconservative as a symbol of American unilateralism and arrogance.

For a while, Mr. Wolfowitz seemed to defuse those fears, even taking on the Bush administration over how best to aid the poorest nations of Africa. But now it is clear that the chorus of calls in recent days for Mr. Wolfowitz’s ouster is only partly about his involvement in setting up a comfortable job, with a big pay raise, for a bank officer who is Mr. Wolfowitz’s companion.

At its core, the fight about whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank is a debate about Mr. Bush and his tumultuous relationship with the rest of the world, particularly the bank, the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which have viewed themselves — at various moments since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — as being at war with the Bush White House and its agenda.
............
In foreign capitals, and among the bank’s staff members, it has been noted that Mr. Wolfowitz’s passion for fighting corruption, which he has said saps economic life from the world’s poorest nations, seemed to evaporate when it came to reviewing lending to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, three countries that the United States considers strategically vital. Some longtime bank staff members complained that Mr. Wolfowitz relied too little on experts in international development and too much on a pair of aides who served with him in the administration.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/washington/14assess.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

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OUST him is the ONLY solution!

[radfringe]

1. meanwhile and no big surprise

bush has "confidence" in Wolfowitz

looks like Gonzales has some company on that lonely chopping block

[lapfog_1]

2. no, ousting is only one solution

I prefer a long stay in a small prison cell, with as much Brylcreem and as many combs as he desires.

[legin]

3. Another article

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040907S.shtml

[legin]

4. Names of the aides ??

(snip)

But after months of seeming tranquillity, the bank is stewing with discontent over Wolfowitz's choice of several confidantes with administration or Republican connections to serve in key bank posts. The most influential is Robin Cleveland, who worked closely with Wolfowitz when she was a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget and is now his top adviser. Two others are Kevin S. Kellems, a former spokesman for Vice President Cheney who last month became the bank's chief communications strategist; and Suzanne Rich Folsom, a former Republican activist named last month to head the Department of Institutional Integrity, the bank's internal watchdog unit. Kellems also holds the title of senior adviser to the president, and Folsom has the title of counselor to the president.

(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/07/AR2006020701911_pf.html

[legin]

6. Another bit of another article

(snip)

The scandal centers on the pay of people around Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president. Kevin Kellems, an unremarkable press-officer-cum-aide who had previously worked for Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, pulls down $240,000 tax-free -- the low end of the salary scale for World Bank vice presidents, who typically have PhDs and 25 years of development experience. Robin Cleveland, who also parachuted in with Wolfowitz, gets $250,000 and a free pass from the IRS, far more than her rank justifies. Kellems and Cleveland have contracts that don't expire when Wolfowitz's term is up. They have been granted quasi-tenure.

(snip)

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/

[Raven]

5. This has lawsuit written all over it.

Ali Riza has already been quoted as complaining about her pain and suffering, the disruption to her and her son and the damage to her reputation that this has caused her. Wolfowitz has referred to the "legal risk". If these directors of the World Bank have a brain in their heads they will can him and offer Riza her job back or settle with her. If they keep him on this will be the soap opea of the decade. Notwithstanding the damage Wolfowitz has done to the world community the Bank is supposed to be serving, he is a venal, dirty little man who has no place there.

[bobthedrummer]

7. She is a liar and an operative with a lot of overarching connections, Raven.

"Elizabeth CHENEY was also a 'colleague' of Wolfowitz's partner Shaha Ali Riza"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x548152#651509

[Raven]

9. I have no doubt that she is...how else would she be attracted to people

like Wolfowitz. But all her recent statements say "lawsuit" to me. She's going to bite that hand that fed her.

[peaches2003]

8. It's all up to Bush

The US (Bush) appoints the head of the World Bank. The WB itself can't get rid of him. Either Bush fires him or he resigns. In either case Bush appoints Wolfowitz's successor.

So Bush has not only a Gonzo problem but a Wolfowitz problem at the same time. He appoints according to who is a crony and then he doesn't get rid of them.

[cosmicone]

10. The chimp will then

appoint Gone-zales to World Bank and Wolfowitz as AG hahahahaha

[Usrename]

11. Wolfie is stinking up the joint!

Is it just me?

How bad do you have to be to get tossed from the World Bank?