The Financial Times has an extremely interesting article this morning about the debates within the White House
The Bush administration is divided into three camps, which have very rarely seen eye to eye.
(...)
“There has been a food fight in the White House over Wolfowitz during the last four weeks and nobody really prevailed,” said the insider.
And the assessment quite stark, if not really unexpected:
This has meant that the administration’s shifting calculations have been mostly guided by day-to-day political deliberations rather than by an assessment of what would be in the longer-term interest of the US.
So who are the camps?
The first, which has been led by Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, and "two or three like-minded individuals" in the White House, has consistently argued that Mr Wolfowitz's continued tenure at the bank would impose a mounting cost on American interests and on Washington's ability to set the agenda at the World Bank.
(...)
They say they argued that the longer the administration left Mr Wolfowitz in place, the less leverage the US would have with its increasingly frustrated European partners to ensure a smooth transition for whoever would replace him.
So, that's the sane people. Not many of them, it would seem. They're protected only by the fact that their departure would really look bad to this White House, today, as it would indeed look like 'the last safe/sane hands' are leaving ship.
The second, which has been led by Dick Cheney, the vice-president, and Karl Rove, who is Mr Bush's senior strategist, say the president should remain loyal to Mr Wolfowitz in the teeth of what they see as a European campaign to take revenge for the World Bank president's pivotal role in pushing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They have scant interest in the health of "multilateral institutions like the World Bank", said the insider.
(...)
"Not many people care about the multilateral institutions or have a view one way or another," said an official. "At no point has the administration sat down and said: "What do we think about the World Bank? How does it conflate with American interests?
Surprise, surprise... The evil core, preoccupied only by domestic politics, and not by US national interests.
And the third camp, which includes a number of mid-level operatives in the White House who were described as "non-ideological conservatives", as well as - at times - Josh Bolten, the White House chief of staff, believe the longer the crisis continues the more it damages the US president. They are now arguing for Mr Wolfowitz's departure. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, has recently added her voice to theirs.
It's not clear how this group is different from the first one - ot sounds like these are the loyalists who realize how short-sighted the second group is, but either dare not speak up, or find out that they have very little influence if they disagree. Again, not surprising.
Paul has repeatedly called upon his neocon friends in the administration, the media and the think-tanks to come to his support," said another insider. "There has been complete internal dysfunction as a result."
(...)
This has meant that the administration's shifting calculations have been mostly guided by day-to-day political deliberations rather than by an assessment of what would be in the longer-term interest of the US.
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No real surprises in there. Nobody comes out smelling any good - neither the neocons, hellbent on their failed policies, nor the powerless sycophants, nor either the "reasonable" group which ends up supporting the neocons by their failure to prevail - or to leave a White House that puts neocon loyalty over the national interest.
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UPDATE
Wolfowitz Resigns From World Bank
Policy, Succession Fights Loom
WASHINGTON -- Paul Wolfowitz's stormy two-year tenure as World Bank president with come to an end June 30, the World Bank announced today. More details are expected shortly.
The news could set up a succession fight that threatens to prolong what has become a debilitating crisis for the poverty-fighting agency.
Even before the announcement from the World Bank's board, President Bush seemed to accept that Mr. Wolfowitz would lose his job over conflict-of-interest charges involving his girlfriend. "I regret that it has come to this," Mr. Bush said. "I believe all parties in this matter have acted in good faith."