Dave Frum on World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz:
Say this for President Bush: The man has a sense of style. Critic after critic howls for the heads of the architects of the Iraq war, and above all for the head of the man the European media call "Paul Vulfovitz," as though he were a villain in a John Buchan novel. So what does the president do? He names this Vulfovitz to run the World Bank — a job that the world's do-gooders and bleeding hearts have long regarded as their exclusive domain. Take that!And just to add extra torque to the nomination, there is this irony: Even the president's detractors have been constrained to admit that Wolfowitz is likely to prove an excellent choice — maybe more excellent than is entirely comfortable either for the bank, for its clients in the underdeveloped world, or for its constituencies in the advanced industrial democracies.
Style? The man was unanimously confirmed. From pragmatist Joe Biden to partisan Patrick Leahy, to France to Germany, this nomination and its enactment through two weeks of graceful diplomacy was political brilliance; at once placing the transnational organization in the hands of democratists and settling the question of Wolfowitz's supposed radioactivity, to where it can now be said that with his worst critics in judgment he carries none. Leftists of the Democratic Party's base, who seem to be the only ones entering strident opposition into the public record, are stripped of a credibly dubbed nemesis. Or at least they'll be outside of the elite media and focus fundraisers.