Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Wolfowitz Romancing Tunisian World Bank Employee?...: "I can't vouch for the accuracy of this gossipy story that Paul Wolfowitz is romantically involved with Shaha Ali Riza, a Tunisian woman brought up in Saudi Arabia formerly married to Bulent Riza, a Turk.

I don't think the private lives of people are relevant to their public service (and I would stand up even for those with scandalous private lives as long as they were good at their jobs and hadn't materially harmed anyone). I object to the article's implication that this relationship is any reason for which Wolfowitz should not be president of the World Bank. Obviously, he couldn't be in charge of Ms. Riza's salary or promotions, but there are ways to delegate those things. (In universities, deans sometimes are married to faculty, and they just recuse themselves from oversight over a spouse).

Actually, if the article is true, it is the best thing I've ever heard about Wolfowitz."

(Via Informed Comment.)