Death by a Thousand Cuts

Finally, the current administration's head-scratching strategy becomes clear: they'll stall and do whatever it takes to ensure that no crony gets fired on their watch. Removed, sure. Transfered, OK. Retired, fine. But fired? No way, as getting fired implies that, shocker, someone did something wrong.

So Paul Wolfowitz, king of failing upwards, gets busted for bending rules to give his girlfriend a raise, and the World Bank's board says he's a burden, unliked and ethically suspect. At last, the White House hintssthat his exit is OK with them, but only if it can be orchestrated short of firing the guy.

Give me a break. The World Bank owes the White House nothing. The guy doesn't deserve a deal, so easing his exit with weak equivocating and mushy resolve does nothing but reward his backers with the illusion that they still possess a modicum of power of influence.

I say: throw the bums out, one at a time. And they are bums, too, freeloaders of the worse sort, in it for themselves, and degrading the institutions they allegedly serve in the process. The government needs a good scrubbing to get rid of the grimy ring this lot has left.