Wolfowitz Loses Job, Girlfriend

For weeks, his name has been in the headlines every day.
No, not Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Paul Wolfowitz, outgoing president of the World Bank.
I started a clipping file on Wolfowitz more than a month ago, thinking it might be a topic for me.
As luck would have it, he finally gave in and resigned while I took a couple days off. And it seems that everything about him has been written, including the Wall Street Journal’s daily defense.
Wolfowitz has a girlfriend employed at the World Bank. He transferred her to avoid a conflict of interest. He also raised her pay, by $50,000, bringing it to $193,590.
Pretty cheap compared to what Gov. Corzine spends on his girlfriends.
Often called “the architect of the war in Iraq,” that label earned Wolfowitz little respect from the Bank’s European members and may have been a prime reason they wanted him out.
The girlfriend, Shala Ali Riza, was described in a New York Times article as speaking Arabic, French, Italian and Turkish and having “considerable experience in Africa and the Middle East.”
Too bad he didn’t get some Middle East advice from her before “designing” the war.
Not only is Wolfowitz out, but the New York Post has reported Riza, tired of seeing her name and salary in the news, dumped Wolfowitz.
And so it goes.