WolfoQuits.

MayorBob.

Posted to Politics on Fri May 18, 2007 at 02:04:11 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

The soap opera that was the final days of Paul Wolfowitz's term as president of the World Bank reached a climax with the word of his resignation from his job, effective June 30th.  The steps leading up to this moment having already been discussed here at TnT, the only thing left is to fill in some of the blanks from then to now.  

The scandal swirling around Wolfowitz resulted in a drop off in contributions to the bank along with a drum beat of calls for his resignation from member nations.  As it became official, you would have been hard pressed to find any members not expressing satisfaction that Wolfie was exiting stage left.  The World Bank board itself, in accepting his resignation, said it believed he had acted with the best of intentions but followed that up by expressing relief that this chapter in the bank's history was about to close.

As much as the scandal over the sweetheart promotion package for his significant other, Shaha Riza, the dissatisfaction with Wolfowitz had as much to do with his leadership style and managerial failings.  From the beginning of his term at the bank, he surrounded himself with cronies from the Bush administration.  He would often delegate them responsibility to meet directly with bank staff.  As time passed, the staffers at the bank became openly hostile towards him.  Wolfowitz became less of an ideologue imposed from above as he was an embarrassment for bank staffers - a man, who in the words of one, "couldn't manage a two car funeral."

The next order of business is for Wolfowitz's successor to be selected.  Germany and Japan have both said they support allowing the US the right to do this.  There's already some names being put forward as nominees.  Tony Blair's job as British Prime Minister is over on June 27th.  Blair announced his intention to remain a Member of Parliament after stepping down as PM, but relocation to the relatively friendly environs of the US and a big paycheck might make him change his mind.