Paul Wolfowitz Is An Eternal Screw Up

Published April 13, 2007 in Conservatives.

Until the day Paul Wolfowitz dies (and if there’s a God, he won’t go quick) he’ll have the blood of thousands on his hands for his role in pushing for the Iraq War. But for now he’s in the middle of a scandal at the world bank for giving his girlfriend a sweetheart job.

28 Responses to “Paul Wolfowitz Is An Eternal Screw Up”

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1 Jay Tea
Apr 13th, 2007 at 8:09 am

Sheesh. What a bonehead. You don’t give your girlfriend the cushy job, you have Vernon Jordan do it.

J.
2 jimmmm
Apr 13th, 2007 at 9:54 am

I’m still not over the fact that there’s a woman who will fuck Wolfy.

Hey, Jay Teabag: The ’90s called–they want their talking points back. What’s it feel like to be a Right-wing blogger and carry the dirty diapers for a completely discredited party and political philosophy?
3 Jay Tea
Apr 13th, 2007 at 10:11 am

Well, the pay could be better, jimmmm, but Soros only funds those on the Loony Left. Guess I’ll have to keep doing it out of principle and sincere belief, since the Left sie of the blogosphere is the one that’s all about the Benjamins.

Last I heard about Wolfowitz, though, was he must be doing OK at the World Bank — because I didn’t hear nothing. I’m fairly comfortable in thinking that if he’d been screwing up on a regular basis, those who think that he’s Satan’s step-nephew would have been all over him. Any other bad marks against him besides this boneheaded move?

J.
4 Organic George
Apr 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am

Start a war, get a promotion, fuck with the pay scale your gone.

DC is a screwed up place
5 Wellstone
Apr 13th, 2007 at 10:39 am

Fuck Wolfowitz, and the slimy NeoCon train he rode in on.

Like all these scumbags, he can’t keep his hands out of the till, especially if it ain’t even HIS till.

He should resign or be brought up on charges.

And, uh Jay-Teeeeee….you are pathetic.

“But the CLENIS did it!!!! WHY can’t WEEEE??”
6 z adura
Apr 13th, 2007 at 10:49 am

JayTea, if you are unable to ride the gravy train of Republican largess, that is not the fault of George Soros. Maybe your ideas just aren’t that good or that interesting.
7 Quaker in a Basement
Apr 13th, 2007 at 11:28 am

That’s pitiful, Jay Tea, even in comparison to your past efforts.

Yes, Mr. Jordan attempted to help Ms. Lewinsky land a job–at Revlon! Mr. Wolfowitz, on the other hand hired his mistress to work in his own organization and then rewarded her with handsome (and that’s the only time I’ll use that word in this post) raises.

Do try not to be boring.
8 Quaker in a Basement
Apr 13th, 2007 at 11:30 am

Any other bad marks against him besides this boneheaded move?

Translation: “I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I’ll trot out the standard twaddle anyway.”
9 Duros62
Apr 13th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

His girlfriend/paramour/love monkey makes more than Condi.

Questions swirl?
10 fd10801
Apr 13th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

He hired his girlfriend?

That gets a big, “Who cares?”

Damn, are you guys naïve!
11 SpiderJ
Apr 13th, 2007 at 3:48 pm

You cared enough to tell us not to care. And you’re misusing the word “naive,” although congrats on having the ability to include the umlaut.
12 z adura
Apr 13th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

Frank, apparently the World Bank’s Executive Board cares a great deal about the issue, particularly since he’s so aggressive with claims of corruption among lending nations.

I do have to wonder about a man like you who makes pennies on the dollar of the raise that Riza received and who can’t seem to care about the issue.
13 fd10801
Apr 13th, 2007 at 4:13 pm

No congratulations are necessary — I did it with my handy CharMap

Actually, I’m not. You’re naïve to think that this is a big deal. Big shots hire their girl friends all the time.

German chat room laugh: LÖL
14 Duros62
Apr 13th, 2007 at 5:00 pm

But if Monica Lewinski got that job at Revlon? That’s a big deal?

Maybe I am naive, but I don’t get where you draw the line.
15 Duros62
Apr 13th, 2007 at 5:02 pm

Aside from sleeping with him, what do you think she does for almost $200,000 a year?
16 Duros62
Apr 13th, 2007 at 5:05 pm

Tax-free, I might add.

…as a foreign national working for an international institution, Riza isn’t subject to the same U.S. income taxes as Rice.
17 Wellstone
Apr 13th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

See, this is what we’re up against. The Right in this country has no moral compass whatsoever.

Bushies understand this, and that is why they are completely STUNNED when they get called up on charges.

It’s been a PLEASURE to see the complete AMAZEMENT, the total SURPRISE on the faces of Rethugs under indictment like Ney, Safavian, Claude Allen, Foley, Libby, the Dukester, DeLay, Doyle, Kerik, all of them when they get called to account.

They CANNOT, like Frank, understand for the life of them what they did wrong, other than get caught.
18 fd10801
Apr 14th, 2007 at 12:48 am

“Bushies”?
“Rethugs”?

Whatchyu talking about, Wellstone?
19 Mike
Apr 14th, 2007 at 9:34 am

I’m still trying to understand why giving your girlfriend a cushy job is somehow umbecoming a statesman.
20 Wellstone
Apr 14th, 2007 at 11:12 am

Oh, did you post something?

Like, would that maybe be Paula Jones’ deposition?

You mean her testimony, the one that the Republican judge threw out and declared Clinton innocent of all charges before the whole thing even went to trial? And she appealed, and the Appeals Court threw out her appeal, too? And rich Right-wingers hellbent on taking Clinton down made sure she never paid a penny in legal costs, and was well compensated for her time?

That one?

You wingnuts are PATHETIC.
21 fd10801
Apr 14th, 2007 at 10:39 pm

Yes, Wellstone, we haven’t learned Lesson #1 of the Clinton Era: If you can’t prove it in Court, it never happened.
22 Wellstone
Apr 14th, 2007 at 11:54 pm

Uhh.. yeah, Frank.

Maybe, just maybe it could be bogus charges brought forward by paid liars?

See Olin, Scaife, Coors families, the Bradley Foundation, the Pacific Research Institute, Ted Olson, Landmark Legal Foundation, Judicial Watch, David Hale, and the “Arkansas Project”.

Paula Jones was just a tool.
23 fd10801
Apr 15th, 2007 at 2:49 am

Yes, Wellstone, and the only scandal associated with the Clinton administration was Paula Jones.

Pres. Clinton trailed scandals from 1992 to 2000, like toilet paper stuck to his shoe.

If he went a week without a scandal, I don’t know which week it was.
24 VRWC drone
Apr 16th, 2007 at 11:44 am

Apparently the facts don’t support the “sweetheart job” story:

The paper trail shows that Mr. Wolfowitz had asked to recuse himself from matters related to his girlfriend, a longtime World Bank employee, before he signed his own employment contract. The bank’s general counsel at the time, Roberto Danino, wrote in a May 27, 2005 letter to Mr. Wolfowitz’s lawyers:

“First, I would like to acknowledge that Mr. Wolfowitz has disclosed to the Board, through you, that he has a pre-existing relationship with a Bank staff member, and that he proposes to resolve the conflict of interest in relation to Staff Rule 3.01, Paragraph 4.02 by recusing himself from all personnel matters and professional contact related to the staff member.”

So right up front he asks to be recused from all matters relating to his girlfriend, a long time World Bank employee.

That would have settled the matter at any rational institution, given that his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, worked four reporting layers below the president in the bank hierarchy. But the bank board–composed of representatives from donor nations–decided to set up an ethics committee to investigate. And it was the ethics committee that concluded that Ms. Riza’s job entailed a “de facto conflict of interest” that could only be resolved by her leaving the bank.

Ms. Riza was on a promotion list at the time, and so the bank’s ethicists also proposed that she be compensated for this blow to her career. In a July 22, 2005, ethics committee discussion memo, Mr. Danino noted that “there would be two avenues here for promotion–an ‘in situ’ promotion to Grade GH for the staff member” and promotion through competitive selection to another position.” Or, as an alternative, “The Bank can also decide, as part of settlement of claims, to offer an ad hoc salary increase.”

The ethics committee, not Wolfowitz, decides that the girlfriend should be compendated with a salary increase.

Five days later, on July 27, ethics committee chairman Ad Melkert formally advised Mr. Wolfowitz in a memo that “the potential disruption of the staff member’s career prospect will be recognized by an in situ promotion on the basis of her qualifying record . . .” In the same memo, Mr. Melkert recommends “that the President, with the General Counsel, communicates this advice” to the vice president for human resources “so as to implement” it immediately.

The ethics committee chairman suggests that Wolfowitz start the promotion process, despite the fact that Wolfowitz had asked to be recused.

And in an August 8 letter, Mr. Melkert advised that the president get this done pronto: “The EC [ethics committee] cannot interact directly with staff member situations, hence Xavier [Coll, the human resources vice president] should act upon your instruction.” Only then did Mr. Wolfowitz instruct Mr. Coll on the details of Ms. Riza’s new job and pay raise.

The ethics committee chairman then pressures Wolfowitz to get involved, telling him that only he can make this promotion happen.

If you read Wolfowitz’s actual statement on the World Bank website (which the NYT obviously didn’t), you see he’s actually apologizing for not trusting his original instincts to keep himself out of the negotiations, rather than for giving his girlfriend “a sweetheart job”. Not exactly the mea culpa that the NYT spun it to be.

Going to update your posting to reflect the actual facts of the situation, O-Dub?
25 Jay Tea
Apr 17th, 2007 at 6:49 am

Drone, you really are living in a fantasy world. Around here, Neocons, Rethugs, and Bushies are not innocent until proven guilty. They aren’t even guilty until proven innocent. They’re guilty EVEN IF proven innocent.

It’s a quaint local custom.

J.
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