Oxymoron: Wolfowitz Ethics

In the back and forth between sugar-daddy CEO Paul Wolfowitz and the World Bank over the obscene pay raise he engineered for his girlfriend Shaha Riza, Wolfowitz said he had to be the one to give her the raise because the Bank's ethics committee "members did not want to deal with a very angry Ms. Riza."

Ohhhhh.... she might get mad.... and the powerful ethics panel members are quaking under their mahogany executive desks.... give her whatever she wants.

Yep, that's Wolfowitz's defense.

According to Wolfowitz, the ethics committee told him after he arrived in 2005 that he couldn't directly supervise his girlfriend Riza, who also worked at the Bank, but declined to oversee her job transfer and compensation, instead ordering him to handle those tasks.

Seems reasonable, after all he is the World Bank's CEO. And, he could have delegated the task to a Bank Vice President.

So, just who is afraid of Virginia.... errr, Shaha Riza, and why.

Wolfowitz actually admitted Riza's "intractable position" in demanding a salary increase as compensation for her transfer forced him to grant one to avoid a lawsuit.

Hello? Doesn't that sound like blackmail. Could it be that Wolfowitz's pillow partner knows where the bones are buried. Like his role in the Big Lie leading to the invasion of Iraq? Like the inside scoop on The Decider's modus operandi? So, just give her a big ($50,000) raise to shut her up.

The Bush administration is going ballistic over the idea of Wolfowitz being canned by the outraged Bank board . Lead mouthpiece VP Cheney appeared on FOX news (where else) proclaiming Wolfowitz "is a very good president of the World Bank."

The White House is demanding Wolfowitz stay on the basis of executive privilege.... the self-proclaimed traditional right of the United States to name the head of this world institution, that his mistakes don't warrant his being fired. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is busy on the phone with overseas finance ministers pimping for the administration's favorite sugar daddy to keep his job.

Shortly we'll find out if the World Bank actually does have ethics (the dust-up over Riza isn't their only beef with Wolfowitz) or, if the Bush bully boys have now infected this once-respected world institution....

Then, the scary Riza gets to keep her job, her raise, her broom.... and, her secrets.