He Knows How To Pick 'Em

Holiday Alert: Today is the last of a trio of patron saint days. The most well know is St. Patrick's Day (3/17), followed by St. Joseph's Day (3/19), patron saints of the Irish and Italians, respectively. Nonetheless, what about Irish/Italian mutts like myself? As noted last year, I have declared a new day, St. JP Day (3/18), for this very purpose. The symbol (under advisement) is a leprechaun eating a slice of pizza or maybe a plate of pasta. I was thinking St. Joseph drinking some beer or eating a potato, but that doesn't quite work. The color would be blue and/or black, which are my colors, since I really do not care for green and no color is really associated with the Italians (red for tomato stains?).

First George W. Bush picks UN-basher John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. Then he nominates Karen Hughes, a champion spinner who has little foreign policy experience, to be under secretary of state in charge of enhancing the United States' image abroad. Next, Bush taps Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to run the World Bank. ...

In 1967, Robert McNamara, the captain of the Vietnam tragedy, left his post as secretary of defense to become president of the World Bank. So Bush is establishing a bipartisan tradition: you screw up a war, you get to run the World Bank. With this announcement, the impoverished of the world have less reason for hope.

There are other explanations. First, the current president is James Wolfensohn, so you have the lupine angle (Slate's Today's Papers noted this point). Kevin Drum, after noting in his Political Animal blog that such appointments at the very least look bad, later raised the sometimes heard suggestion that he was being "kicked upstairs." This is deemed as a way to admit error without really doing so, perhaps also an explanation of the Bolton nomination (though it has a kill two birds with one stone value given it gives UN-bashers reason to cheer).

Of course, this is a rather cynical way to "punish" someone, especially since the guy really does not have a resume that just cries out "expertise in World Bank type activities." Fred Kaplan over in Slate suggests his heart is in the right place -- he truly believed in a freedom promoting reason for war (as Wolfowitz noted, WMDs was the most marketable, raising means/ends problems since it was in effect an anti-democratic way to promote democracy), so maybe an institution promoting development is a good place for the guy.

OTOH, having your heart in the right place is not the same thing as being able to follow through on ones dreams in the best of ways. Still, to the degree the World Bank is a neocon friendly means to promote development, Wolfy might be the guy for it. Not that this is exactly a good thing.

The "kicking upstairs" justification can only be taken just so far. Should we also suggest this as the reason for the likes of Alberto "terrorist czar" Gonzales? Or, Condi "historical report" Rice? The nomination of Karen Hughes sounds like a nice retirement package, a lower key means for her to be on the payroll, and maybe get some frequent flyer miles.

How exactly it does not lead to more ridicule and cynicism is unclear. But, it all is part of a trend, including Porter "political hack" Goss as the head of the CIA. And, of course, the renomination of all the judicial nominations held up in the past, including those blocked more than once. Chief Justice Rehnquist, however, might not quite be ready to resign.

So, the time for the possible final piece (CJ Scalia?) of the puzzle has yet to be applied.