Edwards calls for Wolfowitz’s resignation

In the wake of reports of impropriety, Democratic presidential candidate and former senator John Edwards on Friday called for World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to resign, citing a need to “restore America’s credibility and moral leadership.”

“America’s ability to lead in the fight against global poverty is undermined by Paul Wolfowitz at the helm of the World Bank. He should resign,” Edwards said.

{mosads}The World Bank president has come under fire in the past week after the Government Accountability Project revealed that Shaha Riza, a staffer whom Wolfowitz has been tied to romantically, received two substantial raises after he took over. Riza now makes a $193,590 yearly salary, approximately $7,000 more then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Wolfowitz’s tenure at the World Bank has been marked by some of the [same] failures as his term managing the war in Iraq — cronyism and rhetoric that does not match reality — and now serious questions of financial integrity that have alarmed our allies,” Edwards said.

The presidential candidate argued that it is important for the U.S. to be seen as credible and moral “in order to convincingly make the case for global anti-poverty investments that are both strategically smart and morally correct.”