FundieFusionVille
What exactly did all those purple fingers vote for in Iranqistan last week anyway?
Preliminary returns showed Iraqi voters divided along ethnic and religious lines with a commanding lead held by the religious Shiite coalition that dominates the current government.
Hmmmm.....religious Shiite coalition? Sounds a little bit like 'Khomeini II, Return of the Fundies'.
Throughout 1978, demonstrations against the Shah's regime took place in Iran. Ailing from cancer, the Shah departed Iran on Jan 16, 1979. Two weeks later, Khomeini's supporters recalled him from exile in Paris, and on February 1, 1979, he returned to construct his revolutionary "reign of virtue" according to his principle of the velayet e-faqih ("vice regency of the theologian").
Iran became a pure theocracy in just a little over two years.
While such a development might be just fine with Mr. Bush and his desire to expand his base to include 'all the zealots all the time'*, it is apparently not sitting well with secular strongman and original Roving Cheneyburtonian Choice #2:
A representative for former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi described the Dec. 15 vote as “fraudulent” and the elected lawmakers “illegitimate.”
Of course, given the fact that he has reportedly received only 14% of the vote, not to mention the rising stature of theocratic strongmen like Mr. Sadr, it's not hard to imagine that what really has Mr. Allawi cheesed off is the sure knowledge that a few well aimed pistol shots in hidden courtyards will do him no good now.
But what of the original R.C. Choice #1?
Well, it appears that he has fared even worse than Mr. Allawi.
Way worse:
Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi appears to have suffered a humiliating defeat at the recent Iraq polls, according to the uncertified preliminary results.......
(snip)
Preliminary results in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad indicate that Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress scored a minuscule 0.36 percent of the votes.
Out of almost 2.5 million voters in Baghdad, only 8,645 voted for Chalabi.
In the Shiite city of Basra, the results indicate he had an equally dismal showing of 0.34 percent of the vote.
In the violent Sunni province of Anbar, 113 people voted for him.
During the election, Chalabi’s campaign posters proclaimed, "We Liberated Iraq."
Guess folks in Iraq didn't believe that tag line on the posters. Which is interesting, for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it demonstrates that the average Iraqi citizen appears to be way smarter than the entire editorial board of the NY Times.
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*And even Mr. Cheney can probably take comfort in the fact that such an eventuality will give him a second chance to pull an October Surprise out of his hat should the need arise down the road.
Thanks to Cathie from Saskatchewan for her original post on the Chabblabbi numbers.
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