Much like Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz doesn't know when it's time to get out of dodge. From a report in Wednesday's New York Times:
Graeme Wheeler, the bank’s managing director, said...that the fight over whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank amounted to the "the biggest crisis in its history."
Is anyone surprised? Going far beyond revelations over the promotion and pay raise for Wolfie's girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza, the real scandal is ultimately about attempts by Wolfowitz to bring Bush Administration "values" to the World Bank -- in particular an extremist ideology and the same culture of corruption we've become all too familiar with.
And now, despite outrage by vice presidents and staff at the World Bank, Wolfowitz is pulling a Fredo -- he won't leave.
The Times article gives a good run-down of frustrations over Wolfowitz's leadership. At a meeting last week, Wolfowitz apologized over the scandal involving his girlfriend, but it seems he doesn't understand the extent of the problem:
..the beleaguered bank president was immediately confronted by one of his top deputies, who asserted that Mr. Wolfowitz was wrong to think that the furor over his leadership sprang only from his handling of the pay and promotion for his companion or from unease over his support of the Iraq war while at the Pentagon.
[...]
He said it arose from a range of issues, including fears that Mr. 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. A partner at the firm had earlier negotiated Mr. Wolfowitz’s employment contract with the bank.
[...]
The exchange, described in detail by people who attended the closed meeting, illustrated how far the turmoil surrounding Mr. Wolfowitz has spread since it erupted in public a few weeks ago. It also revealed his determination to remain on the job and the deep wellspring of antipathy toward him among the bank’s board and senior staff.
After winning a second term in office, George Bush sought to spread the malfeasance and incompetence of his inner circle outward into the rest of the executive branch and beyond. Call it the long arm of Rovian degradation. From the installation of Gonzales at Justice and Condi at State to Wolfowitz at the World Bank, the cancer of Bush's presidency has spread outward from the White House.
The World Bank's managing director says that:
Mr. Wolfowitz’s staying on would cause "fantastic damage" to the bank’s reputation and effectiveness.
Kind of like what Bush has done to the United States. It's been said before, but I can't think of anything else that expresses what I'm feeling right now:
Worst. President. Ever.