Outside the Beltway

Frist Bows out of World Bank President Pool

Steven L. Taylor
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Cross-posted from PoliBlog:

Via the AP: Frist withdraws name from World Bank

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has withdrawn his name from consideration for World Bank president, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday.

A good move on Frist’s part and one wonders how seriously he was being considered for the position. Quite frankly he would have been a rather bad choice given his utter lack of a record in terms of economics, finance of development. For that matter, I don’t think he has any requisite management experience, either. I know that he volunteers time and skills in regards to the poor in Africa, but I don’t think that qualifies to be even be considered for the presidency of the World Bank.

The following make more sense:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is leading the effort to find a replacement for Wolfowitz.

Other names mentioned for the post include: former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who was Bush’s former trade chief; Robert Kimmitt, No. 2 at the Treasury Department; Stanley Fischer, who once worked at the International Monetary Fund and is now with the Bank of Israel; former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker; former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.

Indeed, Paulson, Fischer and Volker would all seem to be logical choices.

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4 responses to “Frist Bows out of World Bank President Pool”

  1. Derrick Avatar
    Derrick

    The fact that Bill Frist was a candidate is immensely depressing. It almost seems that we have an Administration rooting for the failure of departments and institutions. Hopefully Paulson can exert some authority and get someone at least qualified like Volker or Fischer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Andy Card gets appointed to the position at this point.

  2. Triumph Avatar
    Triumph

    Quite frankly he would have been a rather bad choice given his utter lack of a record in terms of economics, finance of development. For that matter, I don’t think he has any requisite management experience, either.

    It seems like he meets all of the criteria of a Bush appointee.

  3. Steven Taylor Avatar
    Steven Taylor

    One does wonder what in the world is going on. I refrained from too much criticism of Frist’s “candidacy” as it is unclear how serious a candidate he was from the story.

    Still, I must confess that there are good reasons to assume he was a serious candidate (at least as far as the admin was concerned). That is depressing indeed.

  4. Ginny Desiderio Avatar
    Ginny Desiderio

    Bill Frist would have been a terrific person to head the world bank. it is not a bank at all. He doesn’t need to be an economist or a financial guru. What you need is someone who knows how to deal with third world countries. By the way, he ran the Vanderbilt Transplant Center. That was not an easy job, and from all accounts he did a terrific job. The reason that he did not want to be considered is because he is a man of his word. When he said he was taking a year’s sabbatical, that is what he meant.

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