World Bank
TBogg sums it up as we close this story. Since Shaha Riza and her $193,950 salary (funded by the World Bank) has been dropped from next year's budget, the organization has brought back its annual holiday party after a 1-year hiatus. TBogg knows to to finish his post:
You'd be surprised at what kind of party you can throw for the same amount of money that it takes to get someone to fuck Paul Wolfowitz.
Shaha Riza seems to think that the scandal revolves around her move to the US State Department. It doesn't. The scandal is her promotion at the World Bank and her remaining on the payroll long after she left. It isn't a US State Department scandal, it is a World Bank scandal.
It's as if she took a page out of the New York Yankees spin playbook (I'll explain in a sec). She's claiming victim status. But she is not claiming to be a victim of the World Bank promotion and pension. No, she is only talking about the fact that she was forced to take a position at the US State Department in order to lesson the appearance of a conflict of interest with Wolfowitz as the head of the World Bank. And as we now know, she was promoted just before her transfer to State, and given an excessive pay raise at the insistence of Wolfowitz. It was a raise that exceeded the Bank's annual salary increase limit. And she has remained on the payroll nearly 2 years after leaving the World Bank. That's the scandal. Focus on that, please. The tidbit about taking a job over at State is what we might call a 'hangout,' hence the name of this blog. She's no fool. At least she tries to spin us off the main issue, as she has a background in communications.
But for a moment, let's take her at face value. She is claiming that accepting a new job while collecting paychecks from the old job was more than a little inconvenience? She was mistreated and harmed? Awwwwww.
And I love this: No one can explain what she does for 'Federation for the Future.' Of course not. You think the girlfriend of the grand architect of the Iraq invasion would have a real job?
This is not an exact analogy, but -
Remember when the Yankees had a game postponed against Tampa Bay, because the Rays were delayed by a Florida hurricane in September 2004. They practically begged Major League Baseball to record the game as a forfeit by Tampa. And in their defense, Suzyn Waldman of the propaganda TV network known as YES exclaimed that the Yankees had suffered as a result of Tampa's no-show. They "had already showered," she yelled. Those showers must have hurt bad.
Just like that World bank "pension" of over $190K per year hurt Ms. Riza.