Wolfowitz Isn't A Lone Soldier

Does it seem a bit ironic to anyone that Paul Wolfowitz resigned as president of the World Bank earlier among charges of corruption? I mean this is the man who upon taking up his position at the bank declared an anti-corruption campaign. Does it really surprise anybody though? Just look at where Wolfowitz came from before heading to the World Bank, the Bush Administration. Granted just being a member of the Administration doesn’t automatically qualify a person as corrupt, incompetent, or dishonest, but it certainly doesn’t help your case either.

Corruption is nothing new when it comes to politics and indeed one would be naïve to think otherwise. The pomposity of this Administration lies in its hypocrisy. The example of Wolfowitz is just one example, but there are plenty more. Of course there is the recent example of Luis Posada Carriles, one of the most notorious terrorists in the Western Hemisphere over the past 25 years, walking freely in the U.S. Another example is the infamous No Child Left Behind policy,

“President Bush's No Child Left Behind law requires public schools to lower the number of dropouts. Failure to do so results in unfavorable actions being taken against local schools, school districts, and individual teachers.

In his latest budget, President Bush cut the federal money for dropout programs to ZERO. The requirement stays in place. The punishments stay in place. The money to help schools reach the goal and avoid the punishments no longer exists.”1

Do I even dare get in the nuclear proliferation debate? Yeah, I have to. This Administration loves to pretend it is against it with a lot of tough talk to Iran and North Korea, yet at the same time the Administration has pulled out of or weakened every major international arms agreement. Meanwhile they tell Iran that they cannot have the technology while India, Pakistan, Israel (all U.S. allies and not signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) as well as Russia and China surround them with thermonuclear weapons.

So the policies are obviously hypocritical to a large extent. Now lets move on to the people. Randall Tobias, former AIDS Czar, got busted patronizing the services of an escort service. Or course he was only using it for the ‘massages’ and I could really care less what he does in his free time, except that the program he was in charge of wouldn’t give aid organizations that help prostitutes and made much of the aid available only if they went to abstinence programs. What a jackass. I believe the appropriate word in Buenos Aires is boludo.

Since we are on this topic we might as well bring up Ted Haggard. While not a member of the Bush Administration, he was a staunch supporter and powerful evangelical preacher who spoke with Bush or his advisers on a weekly basis. I say was because it came to light that Mr. Haggard also used the services of an escort service, this time a male one, as well as dabbled in methamphetamines on the side. This coming from some one who preached against homosexuality and drug use.

The list goes on and on, but I think the point is made. It has gotten so bad that when I heard about Wolfowitz’s problems at the World Bank my response was, “Yeah, that sounds about right”. Being surprised or shocked at how low these people can sink is no longer even an option, it is just taken for granted.