By host Tom Ashbrook:
Paul Wolfowitz was the intellectual star of the neo-conservative crew that drove the country to war with Iraq. Today, he’s the World Bank president who used his position to land his girlfriend a sweetheart job and cast a global pall over his own anti-corruption drive at the bank.
Today is judgment day, with long knives out for his scalp. The White House stood by him until it didn’t — saying for the first time Tuesday that “all options” were on the table.
Paul Wolfowitz stands for much of what America’s face to the world has been in this young century. And today, that face is in deep trouble.
This hour On Point: Wolfowitz faces the end of the line.
Quotes from the Show:
“The White House now seems to be signaling that if the board will either exonerate him or slap him on the wrist in some fashion, censure him, reprimand him but not fire him, then there can be a conversation about replacing him, and at this point, there’s been real pushback from the board.” Peter Goodman
“The larger issue, which the White House seems incapable of seeing, is that this is not about one man. This is about a style of leadership, not just Paul Wolfowitz’s style of leadership but American leadership, in which we seem to put our power and our prerogative and loyalty to individuals about the good of an institution that is supposed to serve the entire world.” Anne-Marie Slaughter
“He’s the epitome of the neoconservative writers and marginal academics whose brainchild this war is, and American power was at the center of it.” Jack Beatty
Guests:
Peter Goodman, international economic correspondent for the Washington Post;
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.;
Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and Senior Editor of The Atlantic Monthly.
