Europe Ready to Make a Deal on Wolfowitz?

European leaders are working to ease Paul Wolfowitz out as President of the World Bank by offering a deal.  If Wolfowitz leaves soon, they say they will allow the United States to pick the next President, as has been tradition since the bank was founded.

Leading governments of Europe, mounting a new campaign to push Paul D. Wolfowitz from his job as World Bank president, signaled Monday that they were willing to let the United States choose the bank’s next chief, but only if Mr. Wolfowitz stepped down soon, European officials said.

European officials had previously indicated that they wanted to end the tradition of the United States picking the World Bank leader. But now the officials are hoping to enlist American help in persuading Mr. Wolfowitz to resign voluntarily, rather than be rebuked or ousted.

The goal, they said, is to avert a public rupture of the bank board over a vote, possibly later this week, to sanction Mr. Wolfowitz. Even if the vote is a reprimand, they said, it could effectively make it impossible for him to stay on.

And the WAPO talks about the how this current scandal could threaten future funding for the World Bank.