Lone Wolfowitz

A top aide to Paul Wolfowitz, and this one is not his girlfriend, quit yesterday because he found it "very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution” given the current scandal. It's a sign of things to come:

Leading governments of Europe, mounting a new campaign to push Paul D. Wolfowitz from his job as World Bank president, signaled Monday that they were willing to let the United States choose the bank’s next chief, but only if Mr. Wolfowitz stepped down soon, European officials said.

European officials had previously indicated that they wanted to end the tradition of the United States picking the World Bank leader. But now the officials are hoping to enlist American help in persuading Mr. Wolfowitz to resign voluntarily, rather than be rebuked or ousted.

The goal, they said, is to avert a public rupture of the bank board over a vote, possibly later this week, to sanction Mr. Wolfowitz. Even if the vote is a reprimand, they said, it could effectively make it impossible for him to stay on.

It really is like getting Al Capone for tax evasion, having Wolfowitz be forced to resign over getting his girlfriend a job. At the very least, getting his girlfriend a contract in Iraq should be more the standard. Or getting America into Iraq. But the fact that his signature role at the Bank was to fight international corruption, only to be revealed as corrupt himself, makes this seem to me like an apt punishment.