Iraq Fails to Set Election Date

While bush had been dreaming of an election date to be set for before he left office in the hopes of shining up his tarnished legacy just a little, it looks more like another chapter of failure can be added to his biography:

Iraqi parliament adjourns without setting elections
By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month.

The failure to pass the law, which would govern elections in provinces across the country, may push the elections into next year. If elections don't happen by the end of this year, it could be July before the balloting could be carried out, U.N. spokesman Said Arikat said.

Elections originally were scheduled for October of this year.

Things turned violent over the passage of earlier legislation pertaining to the elections, and the potential is there for even more violence because we all know what this illegal invasion and occupation was never about and, apparently, so do the Iraqis struggling for their share of power in the different regions:

The most recent impasse came over the issue of Kirkuk, which sits atop rich oil fields in the north of the country.

The NY Times has more on how dysfunctional the Iraq government has become and how Iraqis attribute it to outside influences like the American and British embassies:

Iraqis Fail to Agree on Provincial Election Law
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

The fissures in the Parliament dispute reflected the larger fractures in Iraq: Shiite politicians blamed Sunni parties for the breakdown; Sunnis accused Kurds and their Shiite allies of recklessness in their demands; Sadrists pointed fingers at politicians in the dominant Shiite parties. Still others attributed lack of progress to improper intervention by outside forces.

“This period enables us get rid of the pressure of the American Embassy, the British Embassy, the United Nations and the Parliament blocs,” said Abdullah Iskander, a Sunni politician. “Now we can think clearly.”

But while lawmakers continued to cast blame, political leaders on the fringes of power saw the breakdown as an intentional tactic on the part of the politically entrenched. “I am sure there are many groups working hard to prevent an election,” said Baha al-Araji, a Sadrist member of Parliament, mentioning specifically the Dawa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council.

You can be certain that entrenched Iraqi politicians and power brokers learned many lessons well, on how to cause government breakdown and failure, from the entrenched politicians and power brokers in the GOP currently working hard to give their hand picked successor, John McCain, a shot at continuing bush failures on into the future.

Just another reminder as to whom we have to applaud for the Iraq distraction - ya know? The illegal invasion and occupation - and the ensuing quagmire and continued failure there:

Outside the administration, there is still a lobby pressing for a move against Iraq, but it is President Bush's strong political standing as a wartime commander in chief that will be essential in preparing the country and its allies for an Iraq campaign, foreign diplomats and administration officials say.

On Dec. 5, Congressional leaders sought to frame the justification for attacking Mr. Hussein in a letter to the president.

''For as long as Saddam Hussein is in power in Baghdad, he will seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them,'' said the letter, signed by Senators Trent Lott, Joseph I. Lieberman and John McCain, among others. ''We have no doubt that these deadly weapons are intended for use against the United States and its allies. Consequently, we believe we must directly confront Saddam, sooner rather than later.''

Any particular names jump out at you up there?