Via a Michael Hirsh column on Newsweek.com:
The plum State Department job that Paul Wolfowitz—of Iraq hawk fame, and now the president of the World Bank—secured for his “companion” (apparently, if you’re over 40, you have “companions” not “girlfriends”) not only represented a hefty raise over his previous position, but also meant that she earned $10,000 a year more than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Obviously, then, the salary was not in line with standard State Department pay scales—which, in turn, discredits Wolfie and his companion’s remarks that they were simply trying to avoid working together in a superior-subordinate capacity.
Hirsh’s overall argument is that Wolfowitz is a victim of his own bunker mentality: He has no allies at the Bank, because he didn’t listen to any of the lifers. Hirsh also spotlights the irony that Wolfowitz’s pet issue at the World Bank was eliminating corruption in the third world countries the Bank supports: “It’s intolerable to be harrumphing about corruption in the developing world while appearing to be lackadaisical about it back at Washington headquarters.”
