Reading the first stories about the accusations against Paul Wolfowitz, I was thinking along the lines of The Corner post, which marveled that Wolfowitz could be so clueless as to hand his critics a 2x4 to beat him up with. But the Wall Street Journal editorial today examines the 100-pages of relevant World Bank documents that Wolfowitz ordered released. The docs show Wolfowitz bending over backwards to abide by ethical rules. But the way the matter was handled, the head of the Ethics Committee told Wolfowitz he had to direct the HR guy about the terms of the promotion for Wolfowitz's girlfriend. That directive, when viewed out of context, seemed to be damning evidence. But when taken in its proper context, it is actually exculpatory.
The original stories are further examples of the old maxim that people believe what they read in the newspapers, except regarding those matters about which they have first-hand knowledge.
Posted by Finn MacCool
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