World Bank Bingo

Update below.

Wolfowitz is on his way out. Bush sent his hound dogs out into the bushes and flushed out Robert Zoellick. The rest of the hunting party is whooping and hollering, slapping high-fives. But:

Zoellick was forced out of his presidency of CSIS here in Washington, with the official reason being his too-overt politicking for then-Republican nominee George Bush. In reality, veterans of CSIS during that period will tell you, Zoellick had by that time made himself very unpopular with both the Board and his colleagues for some of the same problems which cropped up at USTR:

He has a terrible temper, he is “prone to tirades” – a daily dump on Japan generally, and its trade ministers specifically, came to be something of a ritual at USTR – and he has been known to keep “enemies lists”.

See Talking Points Memo for more.

For a friendlier view go to Steve Clemons at HuffPo

And back to bad with KOS. Zoellick was an InvadeEmNow partisan….

Update: More on Zoellick from the Independent

“In 1998 he was a signatory to the mission statements of the Project for the New American Century, which called for increased military budgets and the ousting of Saddam.”

Robert Weissman at HuffPo begins with snark but then asks questions of interest regarding the bank itself, and Zoellick’s probable relation to them, e.g.

– Will Zoellick oppose user fees for healthcare?

– Will he support robust public health systems that rely on public providers — not wishful thinking about HMO-style schemes delivering health care in developing countries?

– Will he abandon support for water privatization, which delivers profits to multinationals but raises costs to consumers and decreases quality of service?

Go to Weissman’s post for more questions, and links to supporting material.