Breathtaking Hypocrisy
Read about the contrast between a scandal you've definitely heard of - Paul Wolfowitz apparently authorizing pay increases for this girlfriend at the World Bank - and one you definitely haven't heard of:Imagine that a top civil servant at a major multinational institution arranges a job for a fortysomething female colleague that comes with a $45,000 raise and brings her yearly salary to about $190,000, tax free. Now imagine that the couple has been photographed at a nudist beach--him wearing nothing but a baseball cap.
The latest sordid twist in l'affaire Wolfowitz? Not at all. This is the story of Günter Verheugen, first vice president of the European Commission in Brussels. In its contrasts and similarities with the "scandal" now absorbing the World Bank and its president, it offers timely instruction on the nature and power of modern bureaucracies.
Background: Wolfowitz is a neoconservative and one of the architects of the Iraq War. He is hated by the left, and was chosen to head up the World Bank upon leaving the Pentagon (I believe? don't think he was at State...). He has been a political target ever since. As the story above highlights, the forces of inertia in this world remain strong.
posted by JM @ 6:51 AM
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