Posted by Mark Silva at 11:15 am CDT The White House is “pretty close” to naming a replacement for Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank president who will be leaving at month’s end because of his role in arranging a new, high-paying job for his girlfriend at the bank, Shaha Riza, when he arrived there. “I think we’re getting pretty close,” White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One today, en route to an immigration speech that President Bush was giving in Georgia. Does the president have a short list ready? “I think we’re getting pretty close,” Snow said. Will the pick come this week? “Likely, yes,” Snow said….

Giuliani’s B-day (63) fundraising party
Posted by Craig Gordon of Newsday at 6:05 am CDT Rudolph Giuliani did a morning-to-night birthday fundraising blitz across New York yesterday but ran into some opposition, too, from people protesting his handling of 9/11. Giuliani took his fundraising pitch to all five boroughs to commemorate his 63rd birthday, which was Monday. And the candidate for the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nomination was very specific about what he wanted as presents $250 for his campaign fund to get in the door, $1,000 for a campaign briefing with Giuliani and $2,300 for a briefing and photo with the ex-mayor, according to the invite….

Wolfowitz: Exposing problems good except for mine
Posted by Frank James at 9:11 am CDT Paul Wolfowitz said something in his BBC interview broadcast yesterday that virtually everyone in the Washington press corps would agree with. “You don’t solve problems unless you expose them.” The soon-to-be former World Bank president said this, with no apparent sense of irony, in an interview in which he seemed to blame the media for his unhorsing as the institution’s president. Wolfowitz was talking about exposing the problems of corruption in Third World countries, particularly Africa, where money for important public projects has a habit of disappearing into the private accounts of corrupt leaders….

‘Law and Order’s” Thompson close to White House run
Posted by Frank James at 2:10 pm CDT Fred Thompson, the “Law and Order” star and former senator from Tennessee, appears to be getting much closer to entering the presidential race, according to what intelligence pros refer to as “open sources,” i.e. media reports like politico.com and the Washington Post. We know people who say as much as well. The idea apparently is that he would announce over the July 4th holiday which could work to his advantage since it’s traditionally a slow news day and that would likely put him at the top of the headlines. One of the knocks on Thompson is that he didn’t accomplish much during two Senate terms. The Democratic National Committee today wanted to drive home that criticism with the following press release. Download FDTLegAccomp.pdf Much of Thompson’s appeal is due to the inability of other Republican candidates already in the race who excite conservative Republicans the way Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) electrifies folks opposed to the Iraq War or the Bush Administration’s prosecution of the war on terror. Thompson supporters hope he’s the man for whom conservative Republicans have been waiting. He certainly is no Al Gore, “Inconvenient Truth” telling, tree-hugging, global-warming believer judging from a commentary he did titled “Plutonic Warming” on the Paul Harvey radio show….

Pizza D.O.C.K.
If you haven t heard about Moretti s Pizza Boat, let us do the honor of filling you in — just in time for Memorial Day weekend. We like to think of it as the ice cream truck for grown-ups — except…

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