US Steps Up Wolfowitz Support

Hank Paulson, I think, has the proper attitude for a senior US official when it comes to l'affaire Wolfowitz. He's concentrating on the process, but is leaving himself an honorable opening whereby he can support Wolfowitz's ouster so long as the process by which it is obtained is fair.

Condi Rice, on the other hand, is now actively lobbying European foreign ministers on behalf of Wolfowitz. And apparently she's being joined by the White House: "the United States is shoring up support for the former U.S. deputy defense secretary among a clutch of allies like Canada and a few Asian and African countries," reports Reuters today.

The White House, which had previously deferred questions over the matter to the U.S. Treasury, insisted on Wednesday it was not "hanging Paul Wolfowitz out to dry" and that he had the Bush administration's strong support.
The Treasury is officially responsible for U.S. World Bank policy, but Wolfowitz is strongly identified with the White House as an architect of the American-led invasion of Iraq.

In other words, Paulson is being overruled by Bush and Rice, which bodes ill for any deal and makes it more likely that the Europeans will be forced into an unwanted direct confrontation with the Americans on the World Bank board.

Wolfowitz has to go, for a multitude of reasons. He no longer has the support or the respect of the Bank's staff, for starters. He also gave his girlfriend a monster raise, even after he had proposed recusing himself from any decisions pertaining to her. And he has changed his story on exactly what happened a good three or four times by now, which means he's hardly been open and honest with the board. It's well worth reading the statement of Ad Melkert, the director of the bank's ethics committee at the relevant time:

As the Ethics Committee had advised that Mr. Wolfowitz’ proposal for recusal from personnel matters was insufficient because it did not include recusal from professional contacts, it is completely incomprehensible that subsequently Mr. Wolfowitz did exactly what he originally had proposed not to do: to engage directly in personnel matters concerning his partner. It would have been perfectly appropriate for him to instruct his relevant Vice Presidents to resolve the issue in accordance with the advice he had received from the Ethics Committee and with the Bank’s rules and practices, and then to otherwise recuse himself from the negotiation and approval of the terms and conditions.

It's not obvious why the US is spoiling for a fight over this. Wolfowitz is sure to go one way or another, so at this point the interests of the US are in making his departure as painless as possible, and maximizing US control over the choice of his successor. Unfortunately, the US seems to be acting in direct opposition to both of those interests right now.

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