Conservatives at the Gates of the World Bank

President Bush has nominated Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to be president of the World Bank. In your face Bono! Frankly, although Bono's name was bandied about for the job of World Bank president, it was really unlikely that he would be nominated to be president. While the U.S. is the largest shareholder in both the World Bank and its sister organization the International Monetary Fund, a European national traditionally heads the International Monetary Fund and a U.S. citizen traditionally heads the World Bank. That arrangement pretty much left Bono, who is Irish (God bless the Irish by the way), out of the running to head the World Bank.

As Yahoo News reports, the reaction of the French is pretty much what you would expect:

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier suggested other candidates could be considered. "It's a proposal. We shall examine it in context of the personality of the person you mention and perhaps in view of other candidates."

This is basically "diplomat speak" for "we're going ape-shit over this!"