How many chances does one man get?
Isn't Paul Wolfowitz ready to retire already, and stop serving the public at such great cost? Talk about track record. And no, I didn't see the comb footage, so really it's nothing personal. It's just the free passes,

I mean, have a little shame buddy?

The scandal centers on the pay of people around Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president. Kevin Kellems, an unremarkable press-officer-cum-aide who had previously worked for Wolfowitz at the Pentagon, pulls down $240,000 tax-free -- the low end of the salary scale for World Bank vice presidents, who typically have PhDs and 25 years of development experience. Robin Cleveland, who also parachuted in with Wolfowitz, gets $250,000 and a free pass from the IRS, far more than her rank justifies. Kellems and Cleveland have contracts that don't expire when Wolfowitz's term is up. They have been granted quasi-tenure.

Then there is the matter of Shaha Riza, a long-standing bank official who is Wolfowitz's romantic partner. She went on paid leave (seconded to the State Department) after Wolfowitz arrived; her salary has since jumped from $133,000 to $194,000. When questions were first asked about Riza's rewards, a spokesman declared that the matter had been handled by the bank's board and general counsel, implying that the bank president himself had not been responsible. But the truth was that Wolfowitz had been closely involved, as a contrite Wolfowitz admitted yesterday.

Treating an anti-poverty institution this way would look bad under any circumstances. But the scandal is especially damaging to Wolfowitz because his leadership had generated questions already. He has alienated the staff by concentrating too much power in the hands of Kellems and the abrasive Cleveland; he has alienated shareholders by presenting half-baked strategy ideas; he has alienated borrowers by blocking loans, sometimes capriciously. Moreover, Wolfowitz has made the battle against corruption his signature issue.

(Highlight: His lady made more than Sec. of State Rice. Makes the Lewinsky/Revlon et al set-up interviews seem like small potatoes, eh?)

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Don Imus
Jon Corzine
a 17-year-old from Oakdale, MN...

There's a lot of pain out there today -- mental, physical, and God-we-can-only-imagine. The only common denominator here is they're all human. Somehow that feeling of human pain gets left out these days in the recounting of life interest stories.*

I wish our world had more big picture thinkers, like the 81-year-old quoted at the end of that last one. People today think empathy shows weakness; I think empathy shows the powerful cost of life. In the end, it ups your respect for the circular life cycle. Sow/Reap/Repeat.

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*re. human interest stories:
For example, it doesn't matter to me so much that Rudy Guiliani doesn't know that a gallon of milk is well above $1.50... it's that he doesn't seem to realize that a lot of people know exactly how much a gallon has risen in recent years. You'd think they'd bone up on the costs of household items and consider how regular folks budget and prioritize to keeps things balanced. Empathy