For a guy who’s accused of helping to start a war for oil, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz sure has a hard time filling up his own car.
Let’s set the scene: Last week, Wolfowitz — who helped make the Bush administration’s case for war in Iraq and who now hangs his hat at the American Enterprise Institute — pulled into the KM Inc ExxonMobil on 21st and M streets NW at night to fill up his black BMW. All went according to plan until Wolfowitz pulled away, soon realizing that he had left the gas nozzle in his tank. Minor chaos ensued, with the nozzle being yanked loose and snapping off.
One eyewitness claimed that Wolfowitz got out of his car, shut his gas tank and left with nary a concern for the damage and drove away. But when asked by Yeas & Nays, Wolfowitz denied the account through a representative, claiming that he spoke with management and apologized profusely for any damage. (It turns out that these sort of incidents aren’t that uncommon, so the nozzles can easily be snapped back into place.)
We spoke with one station manager who was working at the time and, although he didn’t mention speaking with Wolfowitz, he did recall someone rushing into the station to describe what had happened and to point out that it was a former Bush administration bigwig who did the damage.
“I had no idea who he is,” the manager said . “I still don’t.” Confusing Wolfowitz for Wolf Blitzer, he asked us, “Is he the guy on CNN?”
