Screw the French. With rumours flying that Peter McPherson will receive the nomination for World Bank president, we're sure he'll be counting on the whole-hearted support of the French government.

In Iraq, according to an entertaining article in Atlantic Monthly (subs), McPherson was renowned as a passionate Francophile...

An unnamed senior military officer remembers a cigar-chewing banker, Republican partisan and academic leader, whose mission in Iraq was keeping the French out.

"The officer laughed hard remembering this. He said, 'He was so fucking paranoid about the French! He was absolutely rabid! He wanted to make sure they didn’t get into anything.'"

"'We went through this discussion about the mobile phones, the networks, because you know the French are big in this region in mobile phones. McPherson wanted to find a way to construct a public tender that would' - he laughed again - 'that would somehow exclude the French.'"

David Steven ~ February 11, 2005

"Keep track of the rumored candidates, power plays and buzz."
The Washington Post

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Wolfowitz's right hand man jumps ship.
Caught in the World Bank storm.
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Hot blogging on the World Bank president.
Media contacts.
Card wants Snow.
New candidate, French views.
An £8200 job ad.
Bank chief's parting shots.

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