The rules do not apply

The World Bank report on Wolfowitz is pretty damning. I particularly liked this part:

Citing what it said was the “central theme” of the matter, the report said Mr. Wolfowitz’s assertions that what he did was in response to the requests of others showed that “from the outset” of his tenure he “cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution.”

“He did not accept the bank’s policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would be applied to the staff he was selected to head,” the committee said, adding that this was “a manifestation of an attitude in which Mr. Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply.”

That could be the Bush-Republicans' mantra, "The rules do not apply to us." So, of course, we are told that Bush is mounting a "last-ditch" global campaign to save Wolfowitz. If they were to agree that he misbehaved, they would be indicting themselves.