Wolfie

As you've probably heard by now, Bush has named Paul Wolfowitz head of the World Bank, a position that the US president traditionally gets to select. However the position must receive European approval. And, um, Wolfowitz isn't exactly the most popular guy in Europe. I'm not sure what the rationale behind such a controversial pick is but if I had to guess I would say that the Republicans see the Europeans much the same as the see the Democratic Party--weak, full of divisions, and easily conquered. Thus, they can bully the pick through. However, there is one pretty nice catch. Bill Clinton broke the tradition of allowing the Europeans to pick the head of the IMF when he shot down the nomination of Caio Koch Weser. Given that many European governments found that more than slightly annoying combined with the hatred of the Bush administration and especially Wolfowitz, one can only hope that the Europeans prove stronger than the Democrats have been in resisting Bush. If not, they are about as worthless as that party.