Wolfowitz thought same rules should apply to unmarried as to married couples

This is from the New York Times’ story on Paul Wolfowitz’s resignation from the World Bank:

Another official who left was Shengman Zhang, the top deputy to James D. Wolfensohn, Mr. Wolfowitz’s predecessor. Mr. Wolfowitz charged that it was hypocritical for bank officials to allow Mr. Zhang’s wife to work at the bank but to banish Ms. Riza [Wolfowitz’s girlfriend, who is referred to consistently by the Times as his “companion,” a word that conveys to me the image that she is always at his side, like a seeing-eye dog].

Mr. Zhang, now a senior vice president at Citigroup in Hong Kong, was furious, several associates say, because bank rules permit husbands and wives to work at the bank under circumscribed conditions, which Mr. Zhang said he followed, but they bar bank employees from having a sexual relationship with a top bank official outside of marriage.

A correspondent writes:

So, those were the rules. Since when is it up to someone who takes a job to decide he doesn’t like the rules and to violate them, claiming that it is unfair to treat marrieds and unmarrieds differently, something I didn’t know was in the portfolio of neocons and Bush appointees!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 18, 2007 10:35 AM | Send