That phrase was in a comment to my previous Paul Wolfowitz post and I just loved it so much I had to repeat it. And heck, why stop with Wolfowitz? Let’s just fire everybody!
The thing I find surprising about this Wolfowitz scandal is that he never struck me as the crony type. He always came across (in what was written about him, mostly, although I did meet him once) as an intriguing sort of bleeding-heart neocon. Wrong, perhaps, but entirely sincere. I guess he sincerely wanted his girlfriend to have a job that paid really well. But to so completely betray the ideals of the organization he runs, where he was leading a big anti-corruption campaign … Yeah, he probably does have to follow the I-man out the door. Although I don’t imagine the Wolf-man will be getting a show on Sirius.
Update: The latest from the FT, on Friday morning:
The Bank’s board of directors, who represent its shareholder governments, met late into the night in an emergency session to review the findings of their own investigation into the Riza assignment and decide on the next step.
The board adjourned the meeting early on Friday but said in a statement that it would act promptly.
Here’s the most interesting part of that World Bank board statement:
The Executive Directors recalled that, in negotiations between the President and the Board concerning his employment contract, he revealed a conflict of interest involving a staff member. At the request of the Executive Directors, the President sought guidance from the Ethics Committee. The guidance given on an informal basis was that the employee should be re-located to a position beyond potential supervising influence by the President or assigned to external service and compensated for the potential disruption to her career by an in situ promotion as consistent with the practice of the Bank, and that the President, with the General Counsel, should communicate this advice to the Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, and the Vice President, Human Resources, so as to implement it with immediate effect. The President then sent the Vice President, Human Resources, a written memorandum directing him to reach an agreement with the staff member and specifying in detail the terms and conditions.
The Executive Directors noted that the group found that the Ethics Committee, including its Chairman, had not been involved in the discussions with the concerned staff member. Neither did it find that the terms and conditions of the agreement had been commented on, reviewed or approved by the Ethics Committee, its Chairman or the Board.
Do you understand all that? Because I’m not sure I do.
Update 2: Much more on the topic here.