The knives were out for Paul Wolfowitz from the moment he became World Bank president in 2005. Any mistake on his part was bound to be seized upon by people with their own agendas, both inside and outside the poverty-fighting institution.
Mr Wolfowitz's successful promotion of much-needed debtcancellation and anti-corruption programmes was beside the point.
Given half a chance, his opponents would pounce.
So it transpired when Mr Wolfowitz was found to have erred in his handling of a compensation package for his girlfriend Shaha Riza, a bank employee.
This might not have prompted the ousting of another man.
His lapse, however, was manna for European countries that had only grudgingly accepted the White House's appointment of this former deputy Defence Secretary and architect of the war in Iraq.
Mr Wolfowitz's lapse of judgment became a proxy for American misdemeanours internationally.
This was the opportunity for Europe to avenge its shunning by the Bush Administration. It was also the chance to press for the president's appointment to be on merit, not White House fancy.
The agendas did not stop there. Mr Wolfowitz had alienated many career officials at the World Bank by relying on advisers he had brought with him from the Pentagon and the White House.
If this was a well-intentioned move to cut through a cumbersome bureaucracy, it was, as Mr Wolfowitz belatedly admitted, flawed.
But a promised change of management style could not placate those stripped of influence.
Eventually, even the White House retreated to the sidelines. It recognised that, sometimes, a tide becomes so strong that, whatever the merits of a case, it is folly to stand against it.
