Wolfowitz Finally Wakes up to Reality, Resigns

Talk about a lame duck. Paul Wolfowitz will resign

as president of the World Bank on June 30, a month and a half from now, during

which time he will earn $50,000, tax-free, and do substantively zero useful

work. Then again, it’s not a lot of time to find a replacement. Ngozi,

of course, has an easily-leavable job at the Brookings Institute, and she’s

in Washington already. It would be silly to look at anyone else, if you ask

me.

Over at worldbankpresident.org,

there’s speculation that Wolfowitz will be put on mandatory leave effective

immediately, with Graeme Wheeler, Lars Thunell, or Vincenzo la Via stepping

in until a permanent replacement is found. Seems like a good idea to me.