The World Bank and its president, Paul Wolfowitz, announced today that Mr. Wolfowitz will step down in June. The statement reveals that Bush won the terms he wanted for the neocon’s departure. The bank’s board suggested that its ethics policies “did not prove robust to the strain under which they were placed.” Which is really just fancy language for “Wolfie almost got away with it,” but manages to convey that the fault was somehow institutional, as Bush wanted. The board’s statement also included this hard-to-swallow gem: Wolfowitz “assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution and we accept that.” Obviously, he also acted in the best interests of his girlfriend, whose salary skyrocketed under the arrangement Wolfie brokered, even as he presented himself as a veritable crusader (there’s that word again) against government corruption. But there you have it: Bush and Wolfie took a parting shot at the institution that fights world hunger. You gotta love these guys.
