Hanging Tough

Last week I gave Paul Wolfowitz the Chutzpah of the Week award for his defiant attitude towards the "due process" that the World Bank had been applying in investigating his possible ethics violations. Those who have been following this story now know that Wolfowitz maintained his defiant stance when he finally had the opportunity to meet with the investigating committee. Yesterday, Ad Melkert, the former chairman of the World Bank’s ethics committee, took his turn in facing the investigating committee and basically accused Wolfowitz of exaggerating, to the point of distortion, one of the key points in his testimony. Since the President continues to support his position that Wolfowitz should remain in charge of the World Bank, we may take this as another example of someone "doing a helluva job!"

However, the President may soon have to worry about fighting too many battles on too many fronts. He is also hanging tough on the reasons behind his veto of the war funding bill sent to him by the Congress. The Congress is already exploring viable paths to compromise; but both Bush and Rice have been putting out signals (at least to the press) that "compromise" is really not in their working vocabulary, at least over this particular issue. Nevertheless, the argument is all about money; and Congress does hold the "purse strings." Given his track record in understanding the Constitution, Bush may need someone to give him a bit more background on just what, as President, he can and cannot do!