From the NY Observer, the tale of the ever-surviving Wolfo-witz:
Cronyism, neglect, corruption, rigidity and plain stupidity—perpetrated by figures who had billed themselves (and were billed by the mainstream media) as the geniuses of our time—have exacted an awesome toll on the inheritance we received from previous generations. Our heritage of world leadership in the last century was built not upon military power alone, but arose from economic, diplomatic and moral foundations that somehow survived despite many earlier mistakes and even crimes.
With the advent of the Bush administration, however, our luck has obviously run out. Neither allies nor adversaries pretend to believe that the ludicrous characters sent forth by the President to represent us are statesmen. Not only does nobody much care what we think, but most people are now inclined to distrust and oppose us on principle.
The latest example of American decline is, of course, the embarrassing little scandal that has besmirched World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz. Always an overrated bureaucrat, he seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time and effort in recent years fashioning literal sweetheart deals for his paramour—a Tunisian-born Saudi named Shaha Riza—at the bank, the State Department and the Pentagon.
Even while Mr. Wolfowitz was serving as Deputy Defense Secretary, he allegedly pressured a major defense contractor to hire Ms. Riza. For a month, she worked in Iraq on “democracy promotion”—a traditional American objective thoroughly discredited because of Mr. Wolfowitz and his fellow neoconservatives.
Considering Mr. Wolfowitz’s monumental failure at the Pentagon, where he overruled wiser and more experienced staff in preparing for the invasion of Iraq, his own promotion to the World Bank presidency was mystifying. His vaunted brilliance notwithstanding, he may well be the single most incompetent public servant of the past quarter-century, with the only significant competition coming from his former boss, Donald Rumsfeld. Together, they ensured that the occupation of Iraq had too few troops and too little planning, while allowing Republican cronies and crooks to siphon away billions of taxpayer dollars.
It was all going to pay for itself with Iraqi oil revenues, or so Mr. Wolfowitz had testified in Congress with his usual confidence. By the time that particular bill came due, he had moved on.
