Corruption is the scourge of developing nations. In a world economy, cultures that endorse bribery and personal enrichment in their business practices are crippling their prospects for lasting prosperity. The World Bank has properly made it a prime objective to oppose corruption and persuade its 185 member nations that have institutionalized greased palms and cash-skimming executives to change their ways. It is a long-term project: habits entrenched for hundreds of years do not change overnight because of a strongly worded speech, memo or regulation.

Thus for the president of the World Bank to engage in one of the oldest and most snicker-inducing of all ethical breaches is doubly damning. First and foremost, it undermines the Bank's credibility and allows recalcitrant bribers to dismiss its exhortations on behalf of ethical conduct as hypocritical posturing.

Second, it is stunningly dumb.

After dancing around the matter for some time (you wouldn't expect a former Bush Administration official to come right out and admit that he had blundered, would you?),

Wolfowitz confirmed that he improperly directed the bank to offer Shaha Riza, his girlfriend and an official with the Bank, a large pay rise and a promotion as part of a re-assignment to the State Department. The special assignment became necessary when Wolfowitz joined the bank, as ethics rules prevented Riza, as a person with whom he had an ongoing relationship, from remaining under his supervision. But in ignoring this obvious conflict of interest by increasing her pay from $132,660 to $193,590 (tax free!), Wolfowitz violated ethics rules anyway. He then had his spokesman deny it until memos surfaced that proved that the president of the World Bank had indeed orchestrated an excessive raise for his main squeeze…a frequent practice in Mexico, Zambia and Thailand, but exactly the kind of conduct the World Bank is trying to discourage in those countries and elsewhere. This is not the best way to institute reform.

Wolfowitz now says that he regrets "that I did not more forcefully keep myself out of it." His regret is probably sincere, but it's too late. His brain-dead charge into the age-old trap of bending institutional rules to make a lover happy has locked him into a position where his leadership of the World Bank undermines its vital anti-corruption efforts. There is only one way Wolfowitz can be an asset to those efforts now: by resigning, or by being fired.

Wolfowitz has made a pathetic attempt to explain his mistake by saying that it occurred soon after he started his job, noting that he was in "uncharted waters," another way of saying that he was feeling his way and got lost. Sorry, this isn't like using the wrong company parking space. If Wolfowitz was so ethically obtuse that he didn't know that giving his girlfriend a big raise would cause eyebrows to raise across the World Bank's membership, he was never qualified to be its president in the first place.