SO WHAT'S THE WHOLE SHTICK WITH WOLFOWITZ?

Last time we met up with slack-jawed Neocon con artist Paul Wolfowitz he had helped manipulate the U.S. into an unjustifiable attack on Iraq. Predictably, Bush rewarded him with the presidency of the World Bank, greatly diminishing the prestige of that already tarnished organization, and angering every nation which thought someone more respectable-- and qualified-- should have that position. He's had two years to bring the Bank into total disrepute. And then a few days ago we find out that the employees of the organization hate him and publicly boo-ed him and demanded his ouster after he got some hooker he was screwing a plush job with a fat salary. The 24 Directors of the institution met in Washington today and found that Wolfowitz signed off on Shaha Riza’s promotion and salary increase-- double what was allowable-- without a review by an ethics committee or the board’s chairman.

This rubs particularly badly because Wolfowitz has been traveling around the world imperiously lecturing leaders of poor countries that he would not tolerate corruption. He has been threatening and belittling and has made enemies from India to Chad, Kenya and the Congo. Meanwhile he stealthily made sure his mistress' salary jumped from $132,000 to $193,000 annually-- tax free.

Tomorrow's NY Times claims all this is just the surface of a far worse story, the one of the rest of the world sick and tired of Bush regime arrogance, hubris and ignorance-based tyranny. "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."

Over time, Mr. Wolfowitz created an impression that at critical moments he was putting American foreign policy interests first, most notably when he suspended a program in Uzbekistan after the country denied landing rights to American military aircraft, and directed huge amounts of aid to the countries he once recruited to sign on to Washington’s counterterrorism agenda.

It did not help that he relied heavily on a pair of aides drawn from the Bush administration, Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems, who created an inner circle that the bank’s professional staff members said they had great trouble piercing.

Today's USAToday says pressure is mounting on Wolfowitz to resign before he is unceremoniously fired. He has been caught up in lying about the whole affair and has already tried the standard GOP procedure of taking fake responsibility. The bank directors don't play by GOP rules and to them taking responsibility means taking the consequences of your actions.