In his first interview since announcing his resignation, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz blamed the media for his downfall and claimed he had been vindicated over ethics accusations.

“I’m pleased that finally the board did accept that I acted in good faith and acted ethically,” Wolfowitz told BBC News. He neglected to mention that the World Bank board’s statement that Wolfowitz acted ethically was simply a “face-saving deal,” and that the special panel formed to investigate Wolfowitz’s actions found that he “broke bank rules in arranging a hefty compensation package for his girlfriend,” causing a “crisis in the leadership” at the institution.

Wolfowitz says he resigned because “emotions here were so overheated that I don’t think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about.” He denied that “lingering personal antipathy against him had contributed to his decision to leave. ‘I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I’ll leave it at that.’”

Watch it:

The idea that John Edwards’ 2008-vintage lefty political persona “carries risks” strikes me as pretty odd. To be sure, the stands he’s taken carry some level of risk in a general election, but to run in a general election you need win a primary first. And in primary terms, Edwards’ move to the left has been all upside — it was and is the only strategy by which he could possibly win.

“I think He’s Crazy.”

I’d always wondered about Rudy Giuliani’s switch during the 1980s from Associate Attorney General to US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The latter job clearly has certain advantages if you’re looking to run for mayor, but at the same time it seems like a demotion. Mark Kleiman explains that part of the issue is that Giuliani’s signature policy initiative at Justice was failing. “The speculation when Giuliani took what was at best a lateral transfer (Associate AG is the #3 job in the Department) was that he’d figured out that his counter-drug efforts had been a disaster and wanted to be out of the way when the fecal material hit the air-moving equipment.” Team Giuliani notes in its defense that, sure, Reagan may have thought Rudy was crazy, but at least he passed along a form letter praising Rudy when he nominated him for his demotion to the US Attorney job.

Yesterday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said that “by September, when General Petraeus is to make a report, I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw those surge numbers down.” Similarly, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said recently, “The handwriting is on the wall,” adding, “We are headed in a different direction, in the fall, in Iraq. And the president is going to be the one to lead the way.”

As more and more conservatives begin to break away, the fiercest proponents of the current course in Iraq will desperately try to sway public opinion by claiming that the September deadline is too soon and that great progress is being made. Fox News’ pundits are already leading the charge.

This weekend, Brit Hume said the September deadline was “not helpful” and “probably unrealistic.” Fox military commentator Bob Maginnis said “after September, there’s a lot to be done. … It’s going to take a while.” And Fred Barnes claimed Petraeus will report “great progress and say [Baghdad] is heavily pacified. And I think that will increase some of the public support.” Watch it:

While it appears most members of Congress are beginning to coalesce around the need to begin a redeployment in the fall, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he is leading an effort to discourage his colleagues “from saying that September is some kind of seminal moment.” And he’ll have no shortage of help from right-wing media outlets who will spin the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

Transcript: Read more

A Memorial Day tribute:

(HT: DefenseTech)

At least 3,813 U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The faces of the fallen can be found here.

so we can fight them everywhere:

The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American, European and Middle Eastern government officials and interviews with militant leaders in Lebanon, Jordan and London.

Some of the fighters appear to be leaving as part of the waves of Iraqi refugees crossing borders that government officials acknowledge they struggle to control. But others are dispatched from Iraq for specific missions. [...]

Estimating the number of fighters leaving Iraq is at least as difficult as it has been to count foreign militants joining the insurgency. But early signs of an exodus are clear, and officials in the United States and the Middle East say the potential for veterans of the insurgency to spread far beyond Iraq is significant.

White House political director and top Karl Rove aide Sara Taylor, “who has been with George W. Bush from the outset of his first presidential campaign, is the latest staff member to leave the president’s employ.

Taylor cleared out her office early last week. She plans to take her skills to the private sector, where the pay will no doubt be better than the $137,000 she earned in 2006 as a deputy assistant to the president. “I haven’t decided on anything,” Taylor said. “I’m looking at a handful of different options.”

Taylor is reportedly intimately involved in the U.S. Attorney scandal. According to Kyle Sampson, Taylor was directly promoting efforts to appoint attorneys without Senate confirmation. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have approved subpoenas for her testimony.