Wolfowitz Responds to Bank Board

UPDATED BELOW
Sunday's World Bank board meeting ended with a whimper, not a bang. But if you pierce the "bureaucratic language" larding the statement released at the end of the weekend, it's pretty clear a large majority of the World Bank's board wants to be quit of Paul ("Leave the corruption to me") Wolfowitz.

As Steve R. Weiseman reports for the New York Times:

The rebuke of Mr. Wolfowitz came in the form of bureaucratic language in a series of sentences in the board’s communiqué that asserted “the current situation is of great concern to all of us,” an unusually blunt statement for a circumspect institution.

“We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff,” the committee said. “We expect the bank to adhere to a high standard of internal governance.”

Though the language was indirect, the message it sent was unmistakable, according to officials who have been meeting in Washington the last few days. “Words like ‘concerned,’ ‘credibility’ and ‘reputation’ are pretty unprecedented for a communiqué from a place like the World Bank,” said an official involved in the drafting of the statement.

Thing is, Wolfowitz has only one master -- Dick Cheney. And he isn't even on the World Bank board.

So, "Wolfowitz, responding at a news conference, vowed to stay on at the bank... ."

UPDATE
Monday am

Shorter NY Times editorial: Paul Wolfowitz is corrupt, so how can he effectively pursue the World Bank's campaign against corruption? He has to go.