Change in Advisors at State

In today's (December 5, 2007) Washington Post, "Good News, Bad News for Evildoers" by Al Kamens:

He's Baaack

Who says there are no second chances in life? Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense and World Bank president, may soon be back in service to the American people. Former colleague Mike Isikoff, now at Newsweek, reports that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a job as chairman of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board, and that Wolfowitz has accepted.

Pending completion of background checks, he would be named to replace former senator and foreign policy expert Fred Thompson.

Wolfowitz, a key mover on the Iraq war, will head the 18-member group, which is to advise Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMDs and such.

Comment: Wolfowitz, who left the World Bank under a cloud of ethics charges related to his live in girl friend's cushy deals with the World Bank and the Department of State, was so unpopular at the Bank that thousands of staffers wore ribbons to symbolize their opposition to his remaining in power there. While he is certainly a foreign policy expert, I wonder whether the State Department staff is not able to guess what his views would be on any of the issues before it.

Still, those views are probably more useful than the views of an actor playing a regular repeating role on television. JAD