This Time, He Really Was Railroaded

Once he had a whole list of countries to invade, a huge security detail, choppers overhead guarding him, and an entourage of aides and gofers. Until the recent unpleasantness, he was the world's banker, greeted as a head of state when he traveled abroad, often in his own chartered plane.

On Monday, Paul Wolfowitz was on the 10 a.m. Acela train to New York, not even in first class, munching on a pastry, unnoticed, all alone.

Dressed in trousers from a dark suit and a white shirt with no tie, he settled in with a pile of newspapers, a printed schedule and other papers, and our professional spotter was seated just behind him.

There was an embossed invitation to a farewell event hosted by Robert Gates -- probably the one for the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, whom we prematurely retired a few columns ago. Wolfie plopped the Financial Times on top of the pile but then didn't really read it, being totally absorbed in scrolling through his BlackBerry e-mails.

At 10:25 a.m., he made a call on the BlackBerry. "Hi there, just calling to say hi," he said. A woman's voice was on the other end. They chatted for a bit.

Then he nodded off peacefully for the next hour. He stirred at 11:25 and immediately looked at his BlackBerry. He pulled out some sort of chocolate-covered pastry he had evidently brought on the train with him. He scarfed down about half of it and then got up.

He returned 12 minutes later with a Red Bull energy drink and a coffee from the cafe car. He answered a call from "Susan" and said he would be "pretty much out for the whole week." He hung up and started studying the nutritional information on the back of the Red Bull. Then he polished off the pastry.

After that, another call. "Hi, my name is Paul Wolfowitz, and someone suggested I get in touch with [sounded like] Mr. Aaron," he said.

Pause.

"Paul Wolfowitz," he said. "W-O-L-F-O-W-I-T-Z."

Wasn't all that long ago he was bombing B-A-G-H-D-A-D.

To Be Diplomatic

Loop Alert! Did you contribute oodles of money to the Bush-Cheney campaigns? And you haven't yet cashed in on a lovely ambassadorship in Europe or some other fine location? Then get moving, because the window is about to close on you.