Fate worse than Saddam. (Off The News).

Long-time Washington insider and most recently Michigan State University President Peter McPherson agreed earlier this year to take on the assignment in Iraq as financial coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, helping rebuild Iraq's finance ministry, central bank, and banking system. TIE can attest that McPherson is an extraordinarily talented operations expert who served with distinction as simultaneous head of the Agency for International Development and Overseas Private Investment Corporation during the Reagan Administration, and as Deputy Treasury Secretary during the Reagan and Bush Administrations. It goes without saying that McPherson's new position presents some seemingly insurmountable obstacles in trying to return the Iraqi financial system to working order. But perhaps his greatest challenge, McPherson has told friends back in Washington, is not bureaucratic intransigence or fear of sniper attack, but simply the army of mosquitoes regularly swarming through his non-air conditioned quarters. At this point, he tells friends, Michigan winters are beginning to look like a spa vacation.