Little Calm in Wolfowitz's Wake

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

You would have thought that things would be quieter now at the World Bank, what with President Paul Wolfowitz's resignation last week in exchange for the bank board of directors' agreement not to say really bad things about him.

But there's residual anxiety, because Wolfowitz is there for six more weeks and no one knows what he will do. Wolfowitz's letter to the board on Friday, while saying he had no "expectation" of getting involved in policy and personnel matters anymore, still managed to rankle board folks who felt they hadn't signed off on his notions before the letter was made public.

Maybe it was his goofy statement that "I may make a farewell trip to Africa at the request of a number of leaders, but I would consult with you prior to making any such plans." Long as he's paying for it himself, hard to imagine they would object.

Then there was the question of what the rest of his coterie of aides would be doing before he left, especially Managing Director Juan José Daboub, a Wolfowitz appointee. Daboub created a major fuss when he attempted to amend the bank's family-planning policy for women in poor countries with respect to abortion and also tried to fiddle with the bank policy on climate change.

The other managing director, Wolfowitz appointee Graeme Wheeler, who weeks ago told Wolfowitz to his face that he should resign, has become something of an icon among the bank staff. Look for some serious friction between those two.

Top aide Kevin Kellems, who resigned before Wolfowitz did, is not, as has been reported, going to the Heritage Foundation or running for Congress from Indiana. He says he is going to be "doing more fishing and golfing with my father, as well as riding a motorcycle -- Yamaha Road Star Midnight 1600 -- and shooting sporting clays and skeet -- with a . . . Browning XS Sporting over/under 20 gauge."

It was unclear whether there were going to be photos and names on those clay targets. Kellems declined to say whose faces might be on them if there were.

We're told Wolfowitz might spend some time out West hiking and hanging with his kids after he leaves and could well join the book-writing crowd. Unclear where chief of staff Robin Cleveland will land, though she's likely to leave soon. Ditto the general counsel, former Spanish foreign minister Ana Palacio, whose Euro credentials have taken a major hit by this episode.

The irony is that Shaha Riza, the Wolfowitz pal whose forced leave-taking and demands for whopping raises triggered all this, wondered, "Why is it the woman is always the one who has to leave?"

Now the bank proved her wrong. In the prolonged tussle over her demands, four men -- Wolfowitz, Kellems, former general counsel Roberto Da ñino and personnel chief Xavier Coll-- have already lost their jobs, compared with perhaps only two women -- Cleveland and Palacio.

The eventual number of departees probably will depend on whom President Bush picks to be the next bank president. We're not adding to the long list of names already out there as possibilities, save to note that bank folks say this is going to be a full five-year term, which means Bush could be influencing the bank years after he leaves office.

Taming the Waistline

While the troop surge continues in Baghdad, seems Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has left the country to take care of a surging waistline. Talabani checked into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on Monday for a series of medical tests that could take a couple of weeks, Reuters reported. Talabani had been treated in Jordan in February for extreme fatigue and dehydration.

Talabani's office quoted him as saying last week that he didn't have any health problems "except my obesity, and I will treat it, God willing."

Switching to hospital food is a good start.

Check That

Seems House GOP backbenchers are getting a little cheeky when referring to the White House these days. There's a bill in the House that would remove two key legal barriers to having the Justice Department sue OPEC for obvious violations of U.S. antitrust laws.

The bill, aptly styled the "No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels," or NOPEC, is extremely popular on the Hill these days, with gas prices at all-time highs.

But President Bush, despite his dreadful poll numbers, issued a Statement of Administration Position saying that if it were "presented to the Present," his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill.

Given that the bill was going to pass pretty overwhelmingly, Rep. Ric Keller (R-Fla.) said on the floor yesterday -- it later passed 345 to 72 -- perhaps the White House should spend less time worrying about OPEC and more time using spell-check.

Trading Baghdad for Athens

There were some raised eyebrows among the career foreign service folks at the State Department over word that a prize assignment, the cushiest European ambassadorship for a career foreign service officer -- we refer here to lovely Athens -- is likely going to Daniel Speckhard, a civil servant.

What's more, the incumbent ambassador, Charles Ries, is breaking off his assignment early to be No. 2 in Baghdad after receiving a call for his help from the ambassador there, Ryan Crocker. His wife, Marcie Ries, now ambassador to Albania, is leaving to join him in Baghdad.

Speckhard, a career civil servant, had been ambassador to Belarus, worked at NATO in Brussels and headed Iraq reconstruction for a year before moving up to be deputy in Baghdad to ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. This is seen as a nice reward for his service.

Well, the Rieses will have a lovely new home at the new embassy compound on the Tigris.

New in Pakistan

Speaking of embassies, Anne Patterson, former ambassador to Colombia and now head of the State Department's bureau for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs -- known as "drugs 'n' thugs" -- is the pick to replace Crocker as ambassador to Pakistan.

Strongman for Life?

Sometimes the path to democracy has some truly mysterious detours. Sure-footed State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was asked by a reporter about news that amendments to oil-rich Kazakhstan's constitution would let strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev, already in power for 17 years, stay in office for the rest of his life.

"It's a step -- ultimately, when you look at the balance of these things -- in the right direction," McCormack said, noting other reforms in the constitutions.

Kinda like when Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier became president for life in Haiti?