We picked up this little tidbit via Laura Rozen's blog, War and Piece. It seems that folks in a diplomat-heavy neighborhood in Upper Northwest are less than pleased that one of the chief architects -- one Paul Wolfowitz -- of the Iraq war is staging a very different sort of "invasion and occupation" in their neck o' the woods, as the Post mentioned this past week. The reason? A not-so-secret romance with Arab feminist and World Bank communications advisor Shaha Riza. It seems Wolfowitz's comings and goings have set tongues wagging on Riza's block. After all, his guards sit outside in a car until he leaves.

"They kind of picked the wrong place, if they want to be private about it. I don't know if it could be more public if it were on 16th and K streets," said one neighbor, who declined to be identified, citing a desire to maintain cordial relations with Riza. "It's an international neighborhood and he's the icon for a fabulously expensive, tragic war. It's the one thing we talk about now."

The Post reports that all of this is happening in a tony neighborhood south of American University, so we assume the venue is Spring Valley, home to luminaries like the South Korean ambassador and NBC's Tim Russert ... and a former World War I-era munitions testing and burial site that has caused strife between the Army and residents for years. We wonder if anything related to the Army Corps of Engineers' cleanup of the now-infamous Lot No. 18 came up in late-night conversations.

Anyhow, the pair -- who were likely to have bonded over their democratic designs on the Middle East -- have been quiet about the affair, but were vaulted into the spotlight (or at least closer to it) by Wolfowitz's nomination to head the World Bank. Could that constitute a bit of a conflict of interest, since Riza pretty much works there? Oh, nevermind that. Just imagine the "pillow talk."

Actually, nevermind the pillow talk. It turns out the Post left out the most interesting part -- from Hullabaloo comes news that Wolfowitz is a married father of three.

The appointment of George Bush's leading hawk as head of the World Bank was heading for a crisis over his relationship with a senior British employee.

Influential members of staff at the international organisation have complained to its board that Paul Wolfowitz, a married father of three, is so besotted with Oxford-educated Shaha Riza he cannot be impartial.

It could be that the Wolfowitzes have an "arrangement" that accomodates Wolfie's affair. The wife isn't exactly sitting up nights at home wondering where he is, because the Wolfowitzes don't share a home, and haven't for some time. Still, it appears Mrs. Wolfowitz is less than pleased with the, um, current state of affairs.

Wolfowitz married Clare Selgin in 1968. But they have lived separately since 2001, after allegations of an affair with an employee at the School of Advanced International Studies where he was dean for seven years.

According to one Republican Administration insider, Clare was so upset by rumours about the affair that she wrote to then President Elect Bush, saying if the story were true it could pose a national security risk.

It gets better. Official reports of his appointment describe Wolfowitz as divorced, but no one's been able to verify that yet. Whether this will be enough to put the kabosh on Wolfowitz's appointment to the World Bank remains to be seen, but in an administration so publicly concerned with "the sanctity of marriage" it should at least raise an eyebrow or two.