Wolfowitz Exits: Resignation effective June 30

26 Comments

1. 

   idredit on May 17, 2007 at 11:12 am

   Yep. Wolfowitz is defiant and isolated with no reservoir of goodwill.

   We are governed by men with big egos who don’t care a fig for the institutions under their charge.

   • 

     idredit on May 17, 2007 at 2:03 pm

     AT the 2:00 PM hour Reuters reports Wolfowitz a dead man walking. Bush said, “I regret it has come to this.”

     It’s lack of leadership stupid.

     Wolfowitz crisis challenges U.S. leadership

     “WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The likely ouster of Paul Wolfowitz as World Bank president in the face of bitter European opposition poses an unprecedented challenge to the United States’ global financial leadership.

     Weakened by chaos in Iraq, low popularity and his lame-duck status, President George W. Bush appears unable to prevent Wolfowitz’s departure — the first ever of a World Bank president — after weeks of resistance and public acrimony over his promotion of a companion.

     Some U.S. officials and experts expressed alarm that the controversy could force the United States to give up its World Bank preeminence and long tradition of appointing the president, perhaps creating an opening for rising power China.[.]

     Others argued that a radical overhaul of the system of selecting the president and bank lending policies is the only way for the institution to regain credibility.

     “There is growing discomfort with this idea that the United States should hand pick the World Bank president with no consultation,” said Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.”

   • 

     hens teeth on May 18, 2007 at 10:42 am

     So is that how you get obscenely rich exit packages?

2. 

   BooMan on May 17, 2007 at 2:50 pm

   when you don’t believe in government is it any wonder that you staff the government and bureaucracy with cronies and flunkies?

   • 

     idredit on May 17, 2007 at 3:24 pm

     Hey, thanks for dropping by.

     As you noted earlier; friends and foes alike – “we just want it to be over.”

     Can we fast forward January, 2009.  

3. 

   dada on May 17, 2007 at 5:23 pm

   sidney blumenthal has a look at wolfowitz, as part of a commentary on the cult of loyalty that has driven BushCo™ during the past 6 years, that characterizes his MO:

   […]

   In his loyalty to his own ideas, Wolfowitz exhibits his loyalty to the man of ideas — himself. From abstraction to abstraction, he has bullied his cause and career forward. His loyalty to Bush is contingent on Bush’s embrace of Wolfowitz’s schemes. Wolfowitz has never shown allegiance to the institutions where he served: not to the Defense Department, which was an instrument for his notions, nor to the World Bank. He surrounded himself with ill-qualified ideological aides, whose loyalty was above all to him and through him to his ideas. The professional staffs at both the Pentagon and the World Bank seethed at Wolfowitz’s highhanded managerial style, a combination of arrogance and incompetence.

   At the World Bank, he entangled himself in a scandal involving his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, personally arranging for the bank to pay her a large salary increase to move her to a State Department foundation, then blaming the bank’s staff for having approved the decision. According to the World Bank report issued this week, Wolfowitz muttered a malediction to the head of the bank’s human resources department: “If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too.” Thus Wolfowitz posed as Tony Soprano and depicted the World Bank as the Bada Bing. Loyalty would be forthcoming, or else.

   The report described Wolfowitz as a person of “questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest” who “saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply.” His insistence that he had been requested by the bank to arrange Riza’s job “simply turns logic on its head.”

   On Tuesday, Wolfowitz defended himself by blaming his girlfriend, saying of the bank staff, “Its members did not want to deal with a very angry Ms. Riza.” He added that her “intractable position” forced him to give her a large salary increase. With that, the honorable gentleman attributed his rule breaking to his emotionally volatile girlfriend. In short, the bitch set him up.

   In a final letter of defense, Wolfowitz pleaded that he was the victim of “unfair” treatment, that he was maligned as being described as a “boyfriend” and that Riza was also denigrated as a “girlfriend.” He reminded the bank board of his dear children.

   […]

   more at salon day pass/reg req’d

   what a piece of work.  the man is an egocentric, bullying cretin, and power junky who exemplifies the mind set of the entire neo-con cabal.

   it will be interesting to see if this results a revision to the way the president of the world bank has been appointed. it’s unlikely that after this kerfuffle that aWol will get a free hand.

   lTMF’sA

   

   • 

     dada on May 17, 2007 at 6:23 pm

     from npr: / Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has resigned, in a move that will take effect in June. Until then, he is on administrative leave…

     … but looks like a lot of /face saving

     compromises were made.

     lTMF’sA

     

     • 

       idredit on May 17, 2007 at 6:45 pm

       Dada, where’s my popcorn?

       • 

         dada on May 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm

         shit! knew l was forgetting something…think we’re gonna need a cart before the scandals are over…

         
         clik to enlarge

         that’s 1 of, hopefully, many to go….

         enjoy!

         lTMF’sA

         

         • 

           idredit on May 17, 2007 at 7:21 pm

           Thanks for the nice delivery….Hmmm delicious.. but order up 5 more carts…..we’ll be needing at least that many.

           Next up is Gonzales. Not looking good.

           Dems seek no-confidence vote on Gonzales

           10 GOP senators are on board.  

           A thorough investigation could lead to wholesale impeachments. Bring it on.

4. 

   idredit on May 17, 2007 at 6:23 pm

   We have BREAKING NEWS: Reuters

   World Bank’s Wolfowitz to resign effective June 30 – Board statement  6:10pm ET.

   One down 4 to go.

   • 

     idredit on May 17, 2007 at 6:44 pm

     Here is the statement:

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Paul Wolfowitz resigned as World Bank president on Thursday, agreeing to step down as of June 30, the bank’s board said in a statement.”

     “The executive directors acknowledge Mr. Wolfowitz’s decision to resign as president of the World Bank group,” the board said in a statement, adding that it would immediately start the search for a successor.”

     It was his leadership. The girl-friend conflict of interest saga was a gift to the Board.

     Worth a read is this Forbes article

     Wolfowitz At The Door

     Wednesday the Bank said deliberations over his future would continue, but as the row over whether Wolfowitz had engineered a promotion to a better-paying job for his girlfriend has rolled on, it has become clear that the real dispute was over Wolfowitz’s leadership of the troubled international institution.

     Nonetheless, witness reports that negotiations over his departure announcement include an acknowledgment from the Bank that Wolfowitz doesn’t bear sole responsibility for the controversy surrounding his girlfriend.

     He may find some comfort in that. It really doesn’t matter. What’s worth asking now is whether or not the Bank will be better off if he’s ousted. The answer, at this point, is yes.[.]

     He focused his presidency on tackling corruption and instituting moretransparency and accountability to the Bank’s lending, using his authority to cancel loans thought to be going to corrupt governments. But some Bank shareholders, particularly European ones, complained of inconsistent application of policy.

     The dispute came to a head when the boards of the Bank and its sister agency, the International Monetary Fund, overrode Wolfowitz’s opposition to making the Republic of Congo eligible for debt relief. Wolfowitz had already stepped in to block loans to Chad and Kenya over corruption concerns.

     The Congo row did nothing to ease the tensions over Wolfowitz’s style of leadership at the Bank, and the row over his girlfriend became a gift to his opponents.

     We have seen the back of him as the Brits would say.

     Good riddance.

5. 

   AliceDem on May 17, 2007 at 7:15 pm

   Official Statement

   Problems with resignation

   • 

     idredit on May 17, 2007 at 7:32 pm

     As I noted in post citing Steve Clemons, who is well sourced  and The Financial Times, UK, as well…

     “The only question that remains is what gets scribbled in the last paragraph of the story on whether the “blame” for his departure is shared — and whether he resigned under his own steam or was actually, formally fired.”

     From day one when negotiations commenced Wolfy tried to save his departure parachute – one year’s salary: $375,000.  
     Wolfy cannot be rehabilitated. This was not all about his girlfriend but his leadership at the Bank.  What self-respecting CEO would strong arm colleagues?

     See Dada’s comment upthread.

6. 

   boran2 on May 18, 2007 at 1:24 am

   Wolfie, let the door hit you on the way out.

   • 

     no3reed on May 18, 2007 at 2:11 am

     Unfortunately it will, and it will bat him straight into a high-paying (if not, initially, high-publicity) job in the “private sector.”

7. 

   Oui on May 18, 2007 at 2:54 am

   .

   World Bank documents:

   May 14 – Second Report of the Ad Hoc Group (pdf file)
   May 15 – Statement of Paul Wolfowitz to Executive (pdf file)

   MAY 6, 2007 DRAFT REPORT OF THE AD HOC GROUP
   WITH PROPOSED AMENDMENTS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF
   OF PAUL WOLFOWITZ (word doc)

   SUBMISSION OF PAUL WOLFOWITZ
   IN RESPONSE TO MAY 6 DRAFT REPORT OF THE AD HOC GROUP (word doc)

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   • 

     idredit on May 18, 2007 at 8:39 am

     Great Oui, thnx.

     Prof. Juan Cole has a good catch not seen anywhere else.

     Ding, Dong, the Witz has Fled

     The reaction among World Bank employees at the news:

        ‘ “Everyone ran into the hallways and were clapping and hugging each other,” one employee, who declined to be named, said.” ‘

     Bush earlier today complained about journalists dancing on Tony Blair’s political grave. He didn’t know the half of it.

     Linked to his Salon piece this week, Wolfowitz’s Fatal Flaw gives a good idea of his unwelcome.  (highlight added)

     “Soon after becoming head of the World Bank, Wolfowitz lapsed into his typical favoritism, even while he was, ironically, decrying the technique as practiced by governments of the global South. Instead of having an open search for some key positions and allowing for promotions from within, Wolfowitz simply installed Republicans from the Bush administration in high positions with enormous salaries. He brought Kevin Kellems from Dick Cheney’s office (where he had been communications director) and gave him a tax-free salary said to have been as high as $250,000 a year. As Wolfowitz’s new senior advisor, Kellems was leap-frogged over hundreds of officials with serious credentials in development work, something about which he knew little. When representing Cheney, Kellems went to great lengths to defend the vice president’s implausible conspiracy theory linking Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

     Another controversial Wolfowitz appointment was Robin Cleveland, whom he made his assistant. [S]he had been implicated in a corruption and nepotism scandal at the Pentagon, but the Department of Defense had determined it did not have jurisdiction to investigate her. In 2003, while at the OMB, she had lobbied then Secretary of the Air Force James Roche to get her brother a job at defense contractor Northrop Grumman,[.]

     Wolfowitz appointee Juan José Daboub quietly began changing World Bank policy on contraception, presumably as a favor to the Bush administration, which depends heavily on the Christian right for support.

     Experienced, high-level World Bank officials began resigning in droves as they saw Wolfowitz institute a reign of cronies with little development experience and massive salaries. The management style of the newcomers, cliquish among themselves and harsh toward outsiders, alienated those who remained.[.]

     Reads like it’s the manual for the whole criminal gang. His attempt to neo-con the World Bank failed.

     Next up Gonzo Watch.

8. 

   michaelmt on May 18, 2007 at 6:59 am

   It’s important to realize this wasn’t really about a woman or a salary–it was a gift for the Board to have that excuse. Here’s a bit of the subtext:
   Wolfowitz came to the bank with an attitude. There were good countries and bad. The bad ones were rife with corruption, and like the good neocon he was, he was going to punish them.

   Wolfowitz came to the bank with an agenda and an attitude: The Bank was corrupt, many of its partners were corrupt, he was going to fix things. His cultural blindness got him in trouble almost from the get-go. Here’s a quote from a senior vice president:

   But getting rid of corruption is not a silver bullet. The bank should not overemphasize its anticorruption agenda at the expense of other policies required for development.

   Bank officials called his attitude “messianic.” (Deja vu all over again?)

   Like most Bushite morality, appearances were deceiving.

   …Wolfowitz and his aides were trying to impose Bush administration ideas on family planning and climate change at the bank and worries over a possible conflict of interest in the bank’s hiring of a Washington law firm, Williams & Connolly, to investigate leaks.

   He suspended a billion dollar program for family planning in India (evidentally pushing abstinence only!) The Board stepped in. Then they “handcuffed” his ability to do more mischief by changing their policies and procedures.

   But the “straw” that broke the Board’s collective tolerance seems to be a proposed move to funnel World Bank funds into Iraq. He planned to station a full time director for those funds in Baghdad. According to a Bank Director in February:

   Wolfowitz’s apparent determination to use the World Bank to urther questionable military goals in the Middle East is a fundamental distortion of the Bank’s mission.

   According to Whistleblower.org this would have been a new source of funds for the contractors doing “dubious” reconstruction projects there–the Bushies.

   • 

     idredit on May 18, 2007 at 8:42 am

     Nice gift.  

     Hopefully there’ll be more before December.

     Watch the battle for Gonzales.

9. 

   dada on May 18, 2007 at 11:22 am

   BushCo™ never stops with the in your face crap…throw wolfie under the bus and then float these guys as his replacement?!

   talk about your Le(a)d Zeppelin

   …the administration has not learned its lessons from the Wolfowitz scandal, and plans to install a loyalist who will promote the administration’s agenda over sound bank policies:

   Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair: Bush yesterday called Blair a “courageous man” and said that he “enjoyed working with Tony Blair more than I could have possibly imagined.” Nobel prize-winner Joe Stiglitz, a former senior vice president at the World Bank, said, “He is one of the people that is clearly being discussed.'” Blair has been Bush’s strongest international ally and pushed the invasion of Iraq.

   Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN): Frist presided over one of the most ineffective Senate sessions in history, part of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress. In December, USA Today blasted his Senate of “lowering the achievement bar” and failing at “its most basic job: approving all 11 annual spending bills that keep the government’s lights on.” Frist also falsely claimed in 2004 that HIV can be spread through tears and sweat.

   AP also has a few other names that are under consideration, including Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

   via thinkprogress

   extra popcorn carts on order.

   lTMF’sA

   

   • 

     idredit on May 18, 2007 at 11:54 am

     Europeans are calling for reform on the appointment process. The USA leadership has been damaged.

     From FT

     “European commentators and non-governmental organisations called immediately for a reform to the appointment procedure for the new president, arguing that the US should not have the automatic right to appoint Mr Wolfowitz’s successor.”[.]

     `Politiken’, the liberal Danish newspaper, said that, after the European countries had shown unity on calling for Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation, they should now in a similar way “demand changes to the way World Bank presidents are appointed”.

     165 leading development experts and NGOs this week called in an open letter for reforms to the appointment procedure, but the White House indicated on Thursday that it would continue with the existing procedures.

     Europeans may insist on reforms so, Tony Blair! could be a compromised appointment. Perish the thought that the World Bank becomes a rehab for the discredited.

     • 

       dada on May 18, 2007 at 12:51 pm

       l doubt rehabilitation is part of the plan…too much $ at stake, and more than likely, too many things yet uncovered that a lot of people would like to see stay that way, at least untill jan 09.

       Blair’s considered an long shot:

       from The Guardian UK:

       Tony Blair may have emerged as a surprise contender to replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, but the former finance ministers of Afghanistan and Nigeria are both seen as more credible candidates.

       there are also some other interesting names being speculated on, such as Bolton and Rumsfeld…and l was about to express relief that Bolton wasn’t being considered…silly me…and a good compendium of related links, including this one on Oxfam’s call for an end to u.s control over the appointment of the WB president:

       Oxfam has called for an end to America’s control over the appointment of the president of the World Bank, following Paul Wolfowitz’s long-awaited resignation from the World Bank.
       Mr Wolfowitz’s departure, which also sparked further criticism from staffers and speculation that Tony Blair could replace him, is a rare opportunity to make changes at the Bank, the development agency argued. It wants his successor appointed on merit, rather than hand-picked by George Bush.

       more HERE

       as well as an interesting analysis of the subject from the BBC the ties in the connection and politics of the WB and the IMF…an interesting read and something l had not considered.

       …broader debate about how the World Bank, and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, are run.

       By tradition, the World Bank president has always been appointed by the US government, while the Europeans have had the right to nominate the head of the IMF.

       Now this convention is under attack.

       In a letter to the World Bank, 200 leading development organisations have called for and open process for selecting the new leader that includes “transparency of process, and competence of prospective leadership without regard to national origin”.

       “If the outdated convention is not abandoned, the leadership crisis at the World Bank is unlikely to be fully resolved even if Paul Wolfowitz decides to resign,” they said.

       Oxfam’s Barbara Stocking said “the US and other rich countries must now show that they are serious about good governance by reforming the recruitment process to allow the next head of the Bank to be appointed on merit and commitment to alleviate poverty”.

       […]

       NEXT WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: RUNNERS AND RIDERS

       Robert Zoellick: Former US trade representative and US Deputy Secretary of State
       Paul Volker: Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, investigated corruption at UN
       Stanley Fisher: Former World Bank and IMF official, now head of Bank of Israel
       Robert Kimmitt: Deputy US Treasury Secretary
       Andrew Natsios: former director of USAID

       this may end up being rather more complicated than BushCo™ and the neo-con sycophants envisage.

       lTMF’sA

       

       • 

         stormkite on May 18, 2007 at 12:58 pm

         WH says they’re wanting someone who’s demonstrated a longstanding commitment to ending poverty.

         I think that makes Rummy a shoe-in — he has the best record in the GOP for eliminating poverty… or at least poor people.

         • 

           dada on May 18, 2007 at 1:10 pm

           too bad Pol Pot’s, eh.

           l think he’s the current record holder in that event.

           lTMF’sA

           

         • 

           dada on May 18, 2007 at 1:11 pm